# South Carolina v. Baker

> Supreme Court of the United States · June 13, 1988 · 485 U.S. 505

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9431247

## Case

- **Full name:** South Carolina v. Baker, Secretary of the Treasury
- **Court:** Supreme Court of the United States
- **Decided:** June 13, 1988
- **Citations:** 485 U.S. 505; 108 S. Ct. 1355; 99 L. Ed. 2d 592; 1988 U.S. LEXIS 1873
- **Precedential status:** Published
- **Opinion:** Concurrence by Stevens
- **Judges:** Brennan, White, Marshall, Blackmun, Stevens, Scalia, Rehnquist, O'Connor, Kennedy
- **Cited by:** 206 later opinions in the Frix Law Library

## Citator (automated)

- No negative treatment found by the automated citator. That is not the same as a confirmation that the case is good law; read the citing cases.
- Full citator and citing cases: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9431247

## How later opinions describe it (automated extraction)

- stating that the Supreme Court has “completely foreclosed any claim that the nondiscriminatory imposition of costs on private entities that pass them on to States . . . unconstitutionally burdens state . . . functions”
- holding that a federal law removing a tax exemption from state-issued bonds did not violate Intergovernmental Tax Immunity because the tax was “imposed on and collected from bondholders,” and not from the states
- stating that the requirement that bearer bonds be registered in order to be eligible for a federal income tax exemption applied to “local governments, the Federal Government, [and] private corporations”
- stating that "Garcia left open the possibility that some extraordinary defects in the national political process might render congressional regulation of state activities invalid, . . . ."
- holding that a federal tax law was constitutional where it “regulates state activities” and does not “seek to control or influence the manner in which States regulate private parties”

## Opinion text

Justice Stevens,
concurring.
Although the Court properly finds support for its holding in Garcia v. San Antonio Metropolitan Transit Authority, *528 469 U. S. 528 (1985), the outcome of this case was equally clear well before that case was decided. See South Carolina v. Regan, 465 U. S. 367, 403-419 (1984) (Stevens, J., concurring in part and dissenting in part). It should be emphasized, however, that neither the Court’s decision today, nor what I have written in the past, expresses any opinion about the wisdom of taxing the interest on bonds issued by state or local governments.

---

Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9431247. Public record. Not legal advice.