ompany was a Minnesota corporation and that its principal
place of business was located in the State, Justice Frankfurter for
himself and three others wished to stress the prerogatives of the State
of domicile.[732] Justice Black, concurring in this view, added the
caveat that the taxing rights of other States should not be foreclosed
and made reference to his "leave it to Congress" notion.[733] Justice
Jackson, after speaking lightly of the apportionment theory,[734] joined
the affirming brethren on the ground that the record seemed "to
establish Minnesota as a 'home port' within the meaning of the old and
somewhat neglected but to me wise authorities cited," to wit, the Hays
case and those decided by analogy to it.[735] Four Justices, speaking by
Chief Justice Stone dissented, urging the Pullman Case[736] as an
applicable model and the fact that "the rationale found necessary to
support the present tax leaves other States free to impose comparable
taxes on the same property."[737] Evidently in this area of
Constitutional Law the Court is still much at sea or better perhaps, "up
in the air."

Motor Vehicles

In the matter of motor vehicle taxation, on the other hand, durable and
consistent results have been achieved. This is because most such
taxation has been readily classifiable as the exaction of a toll for the
use of the State's highways, and the only question was whether the toll
was exorbitant. Moreover, such taxation is apt to be designed not merely
to raise revenue but to promote safety on the highways. In the leading
case, Hendrick _v._ Maryland,[738] decided in 1915, the Court took
cognizance of the fact that "the movement of motor vehicles over the
highways is attended by constant and serious dangers to the public, and
is also abnormally destructive to the ways themselves";[739] and on this
factual basis it has held that registration may be required by a State
for out-of-State vehicles operated therein,[740] or passing through from
one State to another;[741] that a special fee may be exacted for the
privilege of transporting motor vehicles on their own wheels in
caravans,[742] unless excessive;[743] that taxes may also be imposed on
carriers based on capacity[744] or mileage,[745] or as a flat fee;[746]
but that a privilege tax on motor busses operated exclusively in
interstate commerce, cannot be sustained unless it appears affirmatively
in some way, that it is levied only as compensation for use of the