Louis Brandeis

“ The tax on interstate busses is of the same character as the tax laid for the privilege of engaging in every other line of business. The taxes for the several businesses range from $2.50 to $5,000, and, since they differ widely in amount even for the same business, appear to be graduated according to the assumed earning capacity. In most, the amount demanded increases with the population of the city, town, or district in which the business is carried on. For some a different basis of gauging probable earning power is adopted. On warehouses the tax is graduated according to storage capacity. ”

“ The Tennessee Act of 1927, c. 89, § 4, imposes upon concerns operating interstate motorbusses on the highways of the state a privilege tax graduated according to carrying capacity. It is $500 a year for each vehicle seating more than twenty and less than thirty passengers. The tax for eight such busses was demanded of Interstate Transit, Inc., an Ohio corporation which operates, exclusively in interstate commerce, a line from Cincinnati, Ohio, to Atlanta, Ga. ”

“ Acts 1925, c. 72, § 1; Pub. Acts 1927, c. 1, § 5; Id. c. 6, § 4; Id. c. 37, §§ 6, 7; Id. c. 83, §§ 1, 2; Pub. Acts 1929, c. 5, § 6; Id. c. 36, §§ 1, 2; Id. c. 104, §§ 4, 6, 7; Id. c. 112, §§ 4, 6, 7; Pub. ”