Potter Stewart

“ There can surely be no doubt, either, of Kentucky's plenary power to regulate and control, by taxation or otherwise, the distribution, use, or consumption of intoxicants within her territory after they have been imported. All we decide today is that, because of the explicit and precise words of the Export-Import Clause of the Constitution, Kentucky may not lay this impost on these imports from abroad. ”

“ The respondent, a Kentucky producer of distilled spirits, is also the sole distributor in the United States of 'Gilbey's Spey Royal' Scotch whisky. This whisky is produced in Scotland and is shipped via the ports of Chicago or New Orleans directly to the respondent's bonded warehouses in Kentucky. It is subsequently sold by the respondent to customers in domestic markets throughout the United States. ”

“ The Kentucky Court of Appeals held that the tax in question, although an occupational or license tax in form, is a tax on imports in fact. ' (T) he incidence of the tax is the act of transporting or shipping the distilled spirits under consideration into this state.' 367 S.W.2d, at 270. The court further held that the tax cannot be characterized as an inspection measure, in view of the fact that neither the statute nor the regulations implementing it provide for any actual inspection. ”