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16 

SOUTH DAKOTA v. WAYFAIR, INC. 

Opinion of the Court 

C 

The  physical  presence  rule  as  defined  and  enforced  in 

Bellas  Hess  and  Quill  is  not  just  a  technical  legal  prob­
lem—it is an extraordinary imposition by the Judiciary on
States’  authority  to  collect  taxes  and  perform  critical 
public  functions.  Forty-one  States,  two  Territories,  and
the  District  of  Columbia  now  ask  this  Court  to  reject  the
test  formulated  in  Quill.  See  Brief  for  Colorado  et al.  as 
Amici  Curiae.  Quill’s  physical  presence  rule  intrudes  on 
States’  reasonable  choices  in  enacting  their  tax  systems. 
And that it allows remote sellers to escape an obligation to 
remit a lawful state tax is unfair and unjust.  It is unfair 
and  unjust  to  those  competitors,  both  local  and  out  of
State, who must remit the tax; to the consumers who pay
the tax; and to the States that seek fair enforcement of the 
sales  tax,  a  tax  many  States  for  many  years  have  consid­
ered an indispensable source for raising revenue. 

In  essence,  respondents  ask  this  Court  to  retain  a  rule
that  allows  their  customers  to  escape  payment  of  sales 
taxes—taxes  that  are  essential  to  create  and  secure  the 
active  market  they  supply  with  goods  and  services.    An 
example may suffice.  Wayfair offers to sell a vast selection 
of furnishings.  Its advertising seeks to create an image of 
beautiful,  peaceful  homes,  but  it  also  says  that  “ ‘[o]ne  of
the  best  things  about  buying  through  Wayfair  is  that  we 
do not have to charge sales tax.’ ”  Brief for Petitioner 55. 
What  Wayfair  ignores  in  its  subtle  offer  to  assist  in  tax 
evasion  is  that  creating  a  dream  home  assumes  solvent
state  and  local  governments.  State  taxes  fund  the  police
and  fire  departments  that  protect  the  homes  containing
their  customers’  furniture  and  ensure  goods  are  safely
delivered;  maintain  the  public  roads  and  municipal  ser­
vices  that  allow  communication  with  and  access  to  cus­
tomers;  support  the  “sound  local  banking  institutions  to
support  credit  transactions  [and]  courts  to  ensure  collec­
tion of the purchase price,” Quill, 504 U. S., at 328 (opin­