Quill Corp. v. North Dakota, by and Through Its Tax Commissioner, Heitkamp

Summary

The Court held that due process permits North Dakota to require Quill to collect use taxes because Quill purposefully directed substantial business activities toward the State, overruling the contrary physical-presence holdings of National Bellas Hess. Nevertheless, the Court retained Bellas Hess’s physical-presence rule under the dormant Commerce Clause and held that Quill lacked the substantial nexus necessary to impose collection duties. It reversed and remanded. Justice Stevens wrote for a unanimous Court in Parts I–III and for Chief Justice Rehnquist and Justices Blackmun, O'Connor, and Souter in Part IV. Justice Scalia, joined by Justices Kennedy and Thomas, concurred in Parts I–III and the judgment, preferring to retain the Commerce Clause rule solely on stare decisis grounds without reconsidering its merits. Justice White concurred in part and dissented in part, agreeing with the due process holding but arguing that the Court should also overrule Bellas Hess’s Commerce Clause holding.