Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/125/181/
Timestamp: 2019-04-22 08:11:39+00:00

Document:
The exaction of a license fee by a state to enable a corporation organized under the laws of another state to have an office within its limits for the use of the officers, stockholders, agents, or employs of the corporation does not impinge upon the commercial clause of the federal Constitution (Article I, § VIII, clause 3), provided the corporation is neither engaged in carrying on foreign or interstate commerce nor employed by the government of the United States.
Corporations are not citizens within the meaning of the clause of the Constitution declaring that the citizens of each state shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of citizens in the several states, Article IV, § II, clause 1.
A private corporation is included under the designation of "person" in the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, section I.
The provisions in the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, Section I, that "No state shall deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws" do not prohibit a state from requiring for the admission within its limits of a corporation of another state such conditions as it chooses.
The only limitation upon the power of a state to exclude a foreign corporation from doing business within its limits, or hiring offices for that purpose, or to exact conditions for allowing the corporation to do business or hire offices there, arises where the corporation is in the employ of the federal government or where its business is strictly commerce, interstate or foreign.
by a corporation of this state which does pay a tax under any previous section of this act."
It is conceded that the corporation is not within the exception of the proviso of the act, as it pays no tax under any previous section.
From this assessment, or settlement of the account against the corporation, as it is termed in the record, the corporation appealed to the Court of Common Pleas of Dauphin County on the ground, among others, that the said 16th section of the revenue act is in conflict with the clause of the Constitution of the United States declaring that "Congress shall have power to regulate commerce with foreign nations and among the several states," Article I, Section 8, clause 3, and also with the clause declaring that "The citizens of each state shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of citizens in the several states," Article IV, Section 2, clause 10. In that court, the Commonwealth filed a declaration in debt against the corporation for the amount claimed. It does not appear from the record that any answer or plea was filed to this declaration, but it is assumed that issue was joined, as counsel of the parties agreed that a trial by jury should be waived, and that the case should be submitted to the decision of the court, subject to a writ of error as in other cases at the option of either party.
The Court of Common Pleas affirmed the validity of the assessment, and the corporation took the case on writ of error to the Supreme Court of the Commonwealth, which affirmed the judgment of the Common Pleas. To review this judgment, the case is brought here.
arise upon its ruling against the contention of the plaintiff in error that the statute of the commonwealth is in conflict with clauses of the federal Constitution. Its ruling upon the conformity of the statute with the Constitution of the commonwealth does not come under our jurisdiction.
The clauses of the federal Constitution with which it was urged in the state supreme court that the statute conflicts are the one vesting in Congress the power to regulate foreign and interstate commerce, the one declaring that the citizens of each state are entitled to the privileges and immunities of citizens in the several states, and the one embodied in the Fourteenth Amendment declaring that no state shall deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
1. It is not perceived in what way the statute impinges upon the commercial clause of the federal Constitution. It imposes no prohibition upon the transportation into Pennsylvania of the products of the corporation, or upon their sale in the commonwealth. It only exacts a license tax from the corporation when it has an office in the commonwealth for the use of its officers, stockholders, agents, or employees. The tax is not for their office, but for the office of the corporation, and the use to which it is put is presumably for the latter's business and interest. For no other purpose can it be supposed that the office would be hired by the corporation.
or the exercise of its powers are prejudicial to their interests or repugnant to their policy. Having no absolute right of recognition in other states, but depending for such recognition and the enforcement of its contracts upon their consent, it follows as a matter of course that such consent may be granted upon such terms and conditions as those states may think proper to impose. They may exclude the foreign corporation entirely, they may restrict its business to particular localities, or they may exact such security for the performance of its contracts with their citizens as in their judgment will best promote the public interests. The whole matter rests in their discretion."
"right to construct, maintain, and operate lines of telegraph through and over any portion of the public domain of the United States, over and along any of the military or post roads of the United States, which had been or might thereafter be declared such by act of Congress, and over, under, or across the navigable streams or waters of the United States,"
"If Congress should employ a corporation of shipbuilders to construct a man-of-war, they would have the right to purchase the necessary timber and iron in any state of the union,"
and, we may add, without the permission and against the prohibition of the state. Stockton v. Baltimore & New York Railroad Co., 32 F. 9, 14.
These exceptions do not touch the general doctrine declared as to corporations not carrying on foreign or interstate commerce, or not employed by the government. As to these corporations, the doctrine of Paul v. Virginia applies. The Colorado corporation does not come within any of the exceptions. Therefore the recognition of its existence in Pennsylvania, even to the limited extent of allowing it to have an office within its limits for the use of its officers, stockholders, agents, and employees, was a matter dependent on the will of the state. It could make the grant of the privilege conditional upon the payment of a license tax, and fix the sum according to the amount of the authorized capital of the corporation. The absolute power of exclusion includes the right to allow a conditional and restricted exercise of its corporate powers within the state. Bank of Augusta v. Earle, 13 Pet. 519; Lafayette Insurance Co. v. French, 18 How. 404; Ducat v. Chicago, 10 Wall. 410; St. Clair v. Cox, 106 U. S. 350.
in what way this can be considered as a regulation of interstate commerce is not apparent.
"as to the nature or degree of discrimination, it belongs to the state to determine, subject only to such limitations on her sovereignty as may be found in the fundamental law of the union."
Philadelphia Fire Association v. New York, 119 U. S. 110, 119 U. S. 120.
see Barbier v. Connolly, 113 U. S. 27; Soon Hing v. Crowley, 113 U. S. 703; Missouri v. Lewis, 101 U. S. 22, 101 U. S. 30; Missouri Pacific Railway Co. v. Humes, 115 U. S. 512; Yick Wo v. Hopkins, 118 U. S. 356; Hayes v. Missouri, 120 U. S. 68.
The only limitation upon this power of the state to exclude a foreign corporation from doing business within its limits or hiring offices for that purpose, or to exact conditions for allowing the corporation to do business or hire offices there, arises where the corporation is in the employ of the federal government, or where its business is strictly commerce, interstate or foreign. The control of such commerce being in the federal government, is not to be restricted by state authority.
MR. JUSTICE BRADLEY, was not present at the argument of this cause, and took no part in its decision.

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