REJECTION OF THE ORIGINAL PACKAGE CONCEPT IN INTERSTATE COMMERCE
But the question also arises as to when goods entering a State from another State become part of the mass of property of the former and hence taxable by it? In Brown _v._ Maryland,[553] Chief Justice Marshall, had remarked at the close of his opinion, "We suppose the principles laid down in this case, apply equally to importations from a sister State."[554] Forty-two years later, in Woodruff _v._ Parham,[555] an effort was made to induce the Court, in reliance on this dictum, to apply the original package doctrine against a Mobile, Alabama tax on sales at auction, so far as it reached "imports" from sister States. The Court refused the invitation; first on the ground that Marshall's statement was _obiter_, the point not having been involved in Brown _v._ Maryland; second, because usage contemporary with the Constitution and of the Constitution itself confined the term "imports" as employed in article I, section 10 to imports from abroad; third, because the tax in question was nondiscriminatory. At the same time, nevertheless, reference was made to the power of Congress to interpose at any time in exercise of its power over commerce, "in such a manner as to prevent the States from any oppressive interference with the free interchange of commodities by the citizens of one State with those of another."[556] The same result was reached a few years later in Brown _v._ Houston,[557] where it was held that coal transported down the Mississippi from Pennsylvania had been validly subjected by Louisiana to a general _ad valorem_ property tax, having "come to its place of rest, for final disposal or use," and hence become "a part of the general mass of property in the State."[558] Again, however, a caveat was entered in behalf of the power of Congress to impose a different rule affording "a temporary exemption" of property transported from one State to another from taxation by the latter.[559]
Woodruff _v._ Parham and Brown _v._ Houston are still good law for the most part.[560] Nevertheless, there is one respect in which imports from sister States are treated as "imports" in the sense of the Constitution, and that is in being exempt from "unreasonable" inspection charges.[561] It is true, also, that in a series of cases involving sales of oil about 1920 the Court appeared to be contemplating reviving the original package doctrine,[562] but these holdings were presently "qualified" in a sweeping opinion by Chief Justice Taft, reviewing the cases.[563] But taxation is one thing, prohibition another. In the field of the police power, where its applicability was not so much as suggested in Brown _v._ Maryland, the original package doctrine has been frequently invoked by the Court against State legislation, and even today, perhaps retains a spark of life.[564]