Michigan-Wisconsin Pipe Line Co. v. Calvert’s Empirical Analysis
1954
Citation profile
39 federal appellate · 10 district · 217 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 327 later decisions (53 by the Supreme Court) — most recently March 2009 · most notably Maryland v. Louisiana (1981), Sullivan v. Little Hunting Park, Inc. (1969)
39 federal appellate · 10 district · 217 state decisions — followed in 34 states
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Relationships
Applies 15 U.S.C. § 717 · 28 U.S.C. § 1257
Relies on Western Live Stock v. Bureau of Revenue · Gloucester Ferry Co v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania · McGoldrick v. Berwind-White Coal Mining Co. · Nippert v. City of Richmond · Utah Power & Light Co. v. Pfost
Most-quoted passages
The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 327 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““ * * * Under the Commerce Clause interstate commerce and its instrumentalities are not totally immune from state taxation, absent action by Congress. Frequently it has been said that interstate business must pay its way (citations omitted) ; and the Court has done more than pay lip service to this idea. Numerous cases have upheld state levies where it is thought that the tax does not operate to discriminate against commerce or unduly burden it either directly or by the' possibility of multiple taxation resulting from other taxes of the same sort being imposed by other states. The recurring problem is to resolve a conflict between the Constitution’s mandate that trade between the states be permitted to flow freely without unnecessary obstruction from any source, and the state’s rightful desire to require that interstate business bear its proper share of the costs of local government in return for benefits received. Some have thought that the wisest course would be for this Court to uphold all state taxes not patently discriminatory, and wait for Congress to adjust conflicts when and as it wished. But this view has not prevailed, and the Court has therefore been forced to decide in many varied factual situations whether the application of a given state tax to a given aspect of interstate activity violates the Commerce Clause. * * * ” (Italics and words in parentheses ours).”
8 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“"* * * Cited to support this principle was Oliver Iron Mining Co. v. Lord, 1923, 262 U.S. 172 , 43 S.Ct. 526 , 67 L.Ed. 929 , where a state tax levied on all `engaged in the business of mining or producing iron ore or other ores' was upheld since the `ore does not enter interstate commerce until after the mining is done, and the tax is imposed only in respect of the mining' ( 262 U.S. at page 179 , 43 S.Ct. at page 528 ); and Hope Natural Gas Co. v. Hall, supra [ 274 U.S. 284 , 47 S.Ct. 639 , 71 L.Ed. 1049 ], which upheld a tax on `producers of natural gas reckoned according to the value of that commodity at the well.' But the tax here is not levied on the capture or production of the gas, but rather on its taking into interstate commerce after production, gathering and processing."”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“It was held an infringement of the commerce clause as applied to an interstate gas pipe line company, where the taxable incidence was the taking of gas from the outlet of an independent gasoline plant within the state for the purpose of immediate interstate transmission. That The California Company can get no solace out of the case appears from this language:”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.