Court Opinion

ID: 9496965
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 16:40:01.119731+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:57:54.887090
License: Public Domain

CONCURRENCE
MERRITT, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
Although I agree with the result reached in the majority opinion, I have serious doubts about the conclusion that Ammex does not have standing to bring this claim under the Export Clause of the Constitution. It seems to me that for the purposes of standing, Ammex alleges an injury that is fairly traceable to the Government. The fact that Ammex paid the tax to the wholesaler rather than to the Government does not mean that the higher price it paid cannot be easily traced to the Government’s imposition of the tax for the purposes of standing. If the gas were sold by Ammex in a separate container and not mixed with the gas in the purchaser’s tank before entry into Canada, it would presumably count as an “export” and there would be no question that Ammex has standing. I do not think that standing should turn on issues that go to the merits of the claim like the question of whether the gas is mixed in the fuel tank or sold in a separate container. Moreover, I do not understand how we can reach the merits of the statutory claim — implicitly holding that when pursued through that avenue the injury is fairly traceable to the Government — yet hold that Article Ill’s standing requirements prevent us from hearing a constitutional claim for the same injury caused in exactly the same way. This seems a distinction without a difference that should not encumber the constitutional law of standing to litigate.
As for the merits of the Constitutional claim, I would interpret the meaning of “export” in the Constitution the same way the majority interprets it for the statutory claim, and uphold the judgment on those grounds. Ammex is not an “exporter” under the Constitution anymore than it is under the statute. When it pours gas into *537the tank of a car, mixing it with what is there, it is no more of an exporter than the gas station which does the same thing a few blocks before reaching the bridge.