SUPREME COURT HANDS FEDERALISM A VICTORY.

AuthorPound, William T.
PositionFEDERALISM - South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc.

On June 21, the U.S. Supreme Court acknowledged that the "laboratories of democracy" are working. In South Dakota v. Wayfair, the court, in overturning its 1992 Quill decision, ruled that states can require out-of-state sellers to collect and remit applicable sales tax on purchases made by in-state consumers. This decision will afford states the ability to enforce their existing sales tax laws on all sellers, not just in-state, job-creating businesses. No more, no less.

Over the course of our republic, the federal government has continually eroded the sovereignty of states. On June 21, however, the laboratories of democracy triumphed. This is a tremendous, yet long overdue, victory for federalism, main street retailers, states and the National Conference of State Legislatures.

For the last 20 years, NCSL's membership has advocated for passage of federal legislation to close the ever-growing loophole on sales tax collection. NCSL's Washington office staff and the thousands of legislators over the years who joined us for Lobby Days, led the advocacy efforts on Capitol Hill. Even though our efforts led the Senate to overwhelmingly pass the Marketplace Fairness Act in 2013, we could not get legislation to the finish line.

In lieu of the congressional roadblock, especially in the House, the NCSL Executive Committee Task Force on State and Local Taxation in 2015 altered our strategy to include bringing a case before the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn Quill. The task force, through our Executive Committee, prepared draft legislation to share with state legislatures that wished to pass laws challenging Quill. South Dakota's legislation, sponsored by NCSL President Deb Peters, was...

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