Quill Corp. v. North Dakota

	Quill Corp. v. North Dakota
	; Supreme Court of the United States
Argued January 22, 1992; Decided May 26, 1992
Full case name	Quill Corporation, Petitioner v. North Dakota by and through its Tax Commissioner, Heidi Heitkamp
Citations	504 U.S. 298 (more); 112 S. Ct. 1904; 119 L. Ed. 2d 91; 1992 U.S. LEXIS 3123; 60 U.S.L.W. 4423; 92 Cal. Daily Op. Service 4458; 92 Daily Journal DAR 7142; 6 Fla. L. Weekly Fed. S 269
Holding
	Appellant won, due to lack of sufficient contacts.
Court membership
	Chief Justice; William Rehnquist
	Associate Justices; Byron White · Harry Blackmun; John P. Stevens · Sandra Day O'Connor; Antonin Scalia · Anthony Kennedy; David Souter · Clarence Thomas
Case opinions
Majority	Stevens, joined by unanimous (parts I, II, III); Rehnquist, Blackmun, O'Connor, Souter (part IV)
Concurrence	Scalia, joined by Kennedy, Thomas
Concur/dissent	White

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Quill Corp. v. North Dakota, 504 U.S. 298 (1992) is a Supreme Court of the United States case concerning use tax. Quill Corporation is an office supply retailer. Quill had no physical presence in North Dakota (neither a sales force, nor a retail outlet),^[1] however it did have a licensed computer software program that some of its North Dakota customers used to check Quill's current inventories and place orders directly. North Dakota attempted to impose a use tax on Quill, which was struck down by the Supreme Court.

[edit] Background

The Tax Commissioner attempted to require Quill to collect and pay over use tax on sales shipped into the state.^[2] The North Dakota Supreme Court upheld the statute.

[edit] Opinion of the Court

The Supreme Court did not agree with the decision of the state court. North Dakota argued that under due process, Quill had established a presence, as the floppy disks were physically located in their state. For use tax collection purposes, the Supreme Court observed that title to a few floppy diskettes in the state was not sufficient "physical presence" to impose such a test. Barring Congressional action, North Dakota could not impose such a use tax.