Court Opinion

ID: 9809374
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 21:10:35.939788+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:27:42.800017
License: Public Domain

Davis, J.
(concurring): The statute under which the defendants are taxed makes no discrimination in favor of *729the citizens of the State against the citizens or property of other States, and in my opinion the only purpose of the framers of the Federal Constitution was to prevent any dis-criminations which local interest might suggest in favor of resident citizens of a State against non-resident citizens. I do not think it was the purpose of the Constitution of the United States to confer upon Congress, by enactment or upon the Courts by construction, any authority to give non-resident citizens doing business in another State rights, privileges or exemptions which may be lawfully denied to resident citizens who are taxed to support the State, and to protect non-resident as well as resident citizens in the discharge of their business. I think a provision of the Constitution conferring upon Congress the power to discriminate by exempting non-resident citizens doing business in a State from duties or burdens which may be lawfully imposed on resident citizens engaged in the same business, would have shocked the most ultra advocate of Federal power; and I do not think that one of the thirteen States would have sanctioned a Constitution granting such authority to the Federal government directly or by any fair implication; and the Federal government has no powers except those delegated by the Constitution expressly or by fair implication.
Affirmed.