United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Browning v. Waycross, 233 U.S. 16 (1914)

Browning v. City of Waycross

No. 259

Argued March 11, 1914

Decided April 6, 1914

233 U.S. 16

Syllabus

A state may not burden, by taxation or otherwise, the taking of orders in one state for goods to be shipped from another, or the shipment of such goods in the channel of interstate commerce up to and including the consummation by delivery of the goods at the point of destination.

The business of erecting in one state lightning rods shipped from another state, under the circumstances of this case, was within the regulating power of the former state, and not the subject of interstate commerce. Caldwell v. North Carolina, 187 U. S. 622; Rearick

Page 233 U. S. 17

v. Pennsylvania, 203 U. S. 507; Dozier v. Alabama, 218 U. S. 124, distinguished.

Parties may not, by the form of a nonessential contract, convert an exclusively local business subject to state control into an interstate commerce business protected by the commerce clause, so as to remove it from the taxing power of the state.

Quaere whether interstate commerce may not, under some conditions, continue to apply to an article shipped from one state to another after delivery and up to and including the time when the article is put together and made operative in the place of destination.

11 Ga.App. 46 affirmed.

The facts, which involve the constitutionality under the commerce clause of the federal Constitution of a municipal occupation tax on lightning rod agents and dealers, are stated in the opinion.

Page 233 U. S. 19