Southeastern Express Co. v. Robertson

Background

A delivery business called the Express Company sued in federal court to stop a Mississippi privilege tax covering its second year. The company filed a bill in equity asking the court to declare the tax illegal and unenforceable. It first obtained a temporary restraining order, and three district judges (one called in under §266 of the Judicial Code) considered the request. After a hearing the judges denied the injunction and the company appealed. This case follows a companion decision about the first year’s tax, in which the same grounds were decided against the company on stipulated facts.

Reasoning

The central question was whether Mississippi’s statute imposing a privilege tax on business done between stations in the State was lawful. The Court relied on its recent decision in the companion case and noted that the difference between the two suits was only the nature of the suit and the procedure. The Court said the state statute was held constitutional against the Fourteenth Amendment challenge. A commerce-clause objection (Article I, §8, cl. 3) appeared in the record but was not argued, so the Court did not address it. For these reasons the Court affirmed the denial of the interlocutory injunction and allowed enforcement of the second year’s tax.

Real world impact

The ruling permits Mississippi to collect the second year’s privilege tax from companies doing business between in-state stations and prevents this company from using an interim injunction to block collection. Because the Court followed the earlier decision, the same constitutional objections were rejected here. The opinion affirms the lower court’s order rather than producing a broad new analysis of the tax.