Smith v. Turner; Norris v. Boston, 48 U.S. (7 How.) 283 (1849), were two similar cases, argued together before the United States Supreme Court, which decided 5–4 that states do not have the right to impose a tax that is determined by the number of passengers of a designated category on board a ship and/or disembarking into the State. The cases are sometimes called the Passenger Case or Passenger Cases.
The Court did not produce a majority opinion. Eight Justices authored separate opinions, and the respective stances on various issues did not always align with other Justices in their concurrences or dissents. The issues addressed in the various opinions included the following:
Whether the Commerce Clause exclusively commits the power to regulate foreign commerce, interstate commerce and commerce with the Indian tribes to the federal government and thus makes state regulation concerning foreign commerce an unconstitutional violation of the Commerce Clause, or whether the states were free to regulate until such regulation conflicted with a valid federal regulation or involved an area that could be regulated only on a uniform basis. Whether regulation of migration of free individuals (as distinct from slaves) was included in the meaning of "commerce" covered by the Commerce Clause. Whether states had an absolute right to determine who could enter its geographical domain that could not be compromised, even by ratification of a foreign treaty, by the federal government except with respect to federal officials, employees and agents, and foreign diplomats. Whether the federal government had any constitutional authority to regulate immigration from foreign nations (as distinct from its acknowledged power to determine which immigrants could be naturalized). Whether such laws violated the requirement of the introductory clause of Article I, Section 8, of the US Constitution, mandating any imposts to be "uniform throughout the United States. Whether Article I, Section 9, of the Constitution, making 1808 a watershed date regarding congressional power over "Such Persons as any of the States now existing should think proper to admit," referred only to the slave trade or also to immigration of free persons. Whether the nature of the New York and the Massachusetts laws imposed a tax on the passengers or on the ships, and the implications of this distinction with respect to the nature of the taxation power of the states; and for those Justices concurring in the judgment of the Court; and the status and meaning of City of New York vs. Miln.
The Passenger Cases is of historical interest. It portrays a diversity of views on several constitutional questions, especially whether the Commerce Clause prohibits any state regulation of interstate and foreign commerce in the absence of federal law or treaty. A bitter personal attack on Chief Justice Taney by Justice Wayne also provided a glimpse of the personal dynamics of the fractious court. However, the failure of the court to produce a majority opinion significantly diminished the value of the Passengers Case as formal legal precedent.
Background
In each case, a state imposed a tax to be collected from the master of a ship entering a harbor of that state. In each case, the captain of a British ship challenged the constitutionality of the state law. Other facts varied between the two cases.
Smith v. Turner
The State of New York imposed a tax on the passenger and the crew of each ship entering the Port of New York at the following rates:
If the vessel traveled from Connecticut, New Jersey or Rhode Island, the tax would be 25 cents for each person on board on the first occasion of each month such ship entered the Port of New York. If the vessel traveled from another state, the tax would be 25 cents for each person on board with respect to each voyage including an entry into the Port of New York. If the vessel traveled from a foreign port, the tax would be $1.50 for the master of the ship, $1.50 for each passenger of cabin class, $1.00 for each other crew member, and $1.00 for each passenger of steerage class.
The revenues collected would be first directed to cover expenses of a marine hospital to care for those who arrived in a sickened state at the Port of New York. Excess revenues not needed for the maintenance of the marine hospital were redirected to the Society for the Reformation of Juvenile Delinquents in the City of New York, a charitable organization caring for and confining delinquent boys.