California v. Buzard

Background

Captain Lyman E. Buzard, a resident of Washington stationed at Castle Air Force Base in California, bought a car while on temporary duty in Alabama and used Alabama plates. California would not let him drive on its highways with those plates and demanded he register the car in California and pay an $8 registration fee plus a 2% "license fee" based on the vehicle’s value. He refused to pay the 2% fee, was prosecuted under California law, and after lower courts split, the California Supreme Court reversed his conviction. The U.S. Supreme Court agreed to decide whether a federal law protecting servicemen from state taxation barred California from exacting that 2% fee as a condition of registration.

Reasoning

The Court interpreted the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Civil Relief Act to protect servicemen from state taxes that are not essential to vehicle registration and licensing. It rejected a reading that would allow host States to levy any vehicle tax whenever the home State had not assessed or collected a similar tax. The Court explained the proviso was intended to make sure cars are registered somewhere, not to force servicemen to pay revenue-only taxes. Because California’s 2% fee was primarily a revenue measure and was not necessary to enforce registration and licensing, the federal immunity applied and California could not require payment as a condition of registration.

Real world impact

Nonresident servicemen stationed away from home cannot be compelled to pay out-of-state vehicle taxes imposed mainly for revenue rather than for registration. Host States remain able to require registration and to collect fees essential to identification and enforcement, but revenue-only vehicle taxes like California’s 2% fee cannot be used to block a serviceman from registering without further state-law showing.