United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Valentine v. Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co., 299 U.S. 32 (1936)

Valentine v. Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co.

No. 13

Argued October 14, 1936

Decided November 9, 1936*

299 U.S. 32

APPEAL FROM THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE UNITED STATES

FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF IOWA

Syllabus

Iowa Chain Store Tax Act of 1935, § 4(b), held unconstitutional. Stewart Dry Goods Co. v. Lewis, 294 U. S. 550.

PER CURIAM.

Appellees brought these suits to restrain the enforce;ment of a statute of Iowa known as the "Chain Store

Page 299 U. S. 33

Tax Act of 1935" (Iowa Code of 1935, c. 329 G-1). The District Court, composed of three judges, held that the provision of § 4(b) of the statute, imposing a tax based on gross receipts from sales according to an accumulative graduated scale, was invalid under the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States as creating an arbitrary discrimination. 1 F.Supp. 760. The case comes here upon direct appeal from a final decree granting a permanent injunction. 28 U.S.C. 380.

The decree is affirmed upon the authority of Stewart Dry Goods Co. v. Lewis, 294 U. S. 550.

Affirmed.

MR. JUSTICE BRANDEIS and MR. JUSTICE CARDOZO dissent.

MR. JUSTICE STONE took no part in the consideration or decision of this case.

* Together with No. 14, Valentine, Chairman, et al. v. Graham Department Stores Co. et al., and No. 15, Valentine, Chairman, et al. v. Walqreen Co. et al. Appeals from the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of Iowa.