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Supreme Court Rules States Can Require Online Retailers To Collect Sales Tax (npr.org)
New submitter zippo01 shares a report: Online shopping will soon become more expensive after the U.S. Supreme court ruled Thursday that states can require internet retailers to collect sales taxes. The 5-4 decision broke with 50 years' worth of legal rulings that barred states from imposing sales taxes on most purchases their residents make from out-of-state retailers. The decision was a victory for South Dakota, which had asked the court to uphold its recently passed law imposing an internet sales tax. "Our state is losing millions for education, health care and infrastructure, and our citizens are harmed by an uneven playing field," said Marty Jackley, South Dakota's attorney general.
Remember this the next time Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch or Clarence Thomas talk about the following the original text of the constitution.
Heh... Yes this is a solid example of why originalists are so full of shit. It's almost always an excuse to justify some sort of behavior that is abhorrent under current social norms or to try stem the tide of political change that some people (usually conservatives) disapprove of. Originalists tend to ignore this principle when it is convenient for them but shout loudly about it when it helps whatever cause they are pushing at the time.
In this case internet commerce has changed the game dramatically and the laws were written in an earlier era with different circumstances. I haven't looked closely enough at this case to decide whether I agree with the decision but it seems clear enough that the old understanding regarding sales tax collection between states no longer makes much sense in the internet era. Change has to happen one way or another so such a decision isn't surprising even if it ultimately turns out to be a poor one. Maybe this will force Congress to actually address the elephant in the room and establish a new framework for States to collect sales tax that makes sense. (Dare to dream...)
It's not nearly that simple.
There is an area in Illinois (around Chicago + some) where a Snickers bar gets taxed less than a package of Starbust, because anything that contains flour does not qualify for the "candy" tax. There are strange laws on sales taxes in many municipalities all across the country. Don't think for a second that they don't expect those to all be followed to the letter.
This ruling makes collecting sales taxes in America just as complicated as managing tariffs for international shipments. Hopefully minus most of the corruption.