Postal Telegraph Cable Co. v. Adams

Citations

• 155 U.S. 688
• 15 S. Ct. 268
• 39 L. Ed. 311
• 1895 U.S. LEXIS 2117

Syllabus

<p>While a State cannot exclude from its limits a corporation engaged in- interstate or foreign commerce, or a' corporation in tlie employment of the general government, by the imposition of unreasonable conditions, it may subject it to a property taxation incidentally affecting its-occupation .in the same way that business of individuals or other corporations is affected by common governmental burdens.</p> <p>The tax imposed by the laws of Mississippi, (Code of 1880, c. 10, § 585; Sess. Laws 1888, c. 3,) when enforced against a telegraph company organized under the laws of another State, and engaged in interstate commerce in Mississippi, being graduated according to the amount and value of the company’s property measured by miles, and béing in lieu of taxes directly levied on the property, is a tax which it is within the power of the State to impose; and the exercise of that power, as expounded by the highest judicial tribunal of the State, does not amount to a regulation of interstate commerce, or put an unconstitutional restraint thereon.</p>