Harlan F. Stone

“ Hence it cannot be said that the threatened action of respondents involves any breach of state law or of the laws or Constitution of the United States. Since the proposed action is the performance of a duty imposed by the statute of the state upon state officials through whom alone the state can act, restraint of their action, which the bill of complaint prays, is restraint of state action, and the suit is in substance one against the state which the Eleventh Amendment forbids. ”

“ Petitioner is the duly qualified executor named in the last will of decedent, which has been probated in Massachusetts. Ancillary administration of the estate has been granted in California. Petitioner brought the present suit in the District Court for Massachusetts, joining as defendants Commissioner of Corporations and Taxation of the commonwealth of Massachusetts, and respondents, officers of the state of California, all charged with the duty of administering death tax statutes of their respective states. ”

“ Petitioner prays that the Court order respondent officials of the two states to interplead their respective claims for the tax; that the Court determine the domicil of decedent, the amount of the tax, and the person or persons to whom it is payable; and that respondents be enjoined from any other proceedings to collect it. ”

“ Neither the Fourteenth Amendment nor the full faith and credit clause (article 4, § 1) requires uniformity in the decisions of the courts of different states as to the place of domicil, where the exertion of state power is dependent upon domicil within its boundaries. ”