United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Adams v. Nashville, 95 U.S. 19 (1877)

Adams v. Nashville

95 U.S. 19

Syllabus

1. The Act of Congress approved June 3, 1804, 13 Stat. 99, was not intended to curtail the power of the states on the subject of taxation or to prohibit the exemption of particular kinds of property, but to protect the corporations formed under its authority from unfriendly discrimination by the states in the exercise of their taxing power.

2. People v. The Commissioners, 4 Wall. 244, and Hepburn v. School Directors, 23 Wall. 480, cited and approved.

3. The Supreme Court of Tennessee having decided that the act of the legislature of that state requiring that all personal property of every kind and nature shall be listed and assessed for taxation overrides and repeals the previous ordinance of the City of Nashville exempting from municipal taxation certain city bonds, and brings them within the scope of general taxation, that decision is binding upon this Court.

The facts are stated in the opinion of the Court.