Duty of Tonnage Defined: Alaska's Property Tax on Ships Found Unconstitutional

The U.S. Supreme Court just handed down its decision in the Polar Tankers v. City of Valdez case (decision can be downloaded here).

Haven't had my coffee yet - so bear with me - the Court, 7-2, reversed the Alaska Supreme Court's decision and struck down the City of Valdez ordinance imposing a tax on the resale value of large ships.  There are several opinions, but the core opinion (Justice Breyer, joined by Chief Justice Roberts, Justices Kennedy, Scalia, Ginsburg, Alito, and Thomas) found the Valdez ad valoremtax to be violative of the tonnage clause of the U.S. Constitution.  The case did not reach the second issue, the commerce clause attack.

Justice Breyer's opinion was joined by Justices Kennedy, Scalia and Ginsburg.

The Chief Justice and JusticeThomas joined part of Justice Breyer's decision, but did not join one part of the opinion and separately wrote to address Valdez' argument regarding the permissibility of any property tax on vessels.

Justice Alito joined part of Justice Breyer's decision, but separately concurred to refute the suggestion (implied in Breyer's decision) that any property tax on vessels would be constitutionally permissible.

Justice Stevens dissented, joined by Justice Souter.

My earlier post (with links to transcript, briefs and earlier analysis) here.