Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 52.djvu/835

Rh ) taxes property, either directly or indirectly, out of its territory and jurisdiction, which it can not protect, and which its processes can not reach, the act is not taxation, but a mere arbitrary exercise of power; not in accordance with any "process of law," and forbidden by the Constitution of the United States, and as involving a principle under the Constitution. Furthermore, the question of restraining a State from the exercise of such arbitrary powers would seem to be one legally within the right of any citizen aggrieved, in virtue of the fourteenth amendment, to carry from the courts of his own State to the Supreme Court of the United States. As another method by which a citizen of a State aggrieved by the imposition of an ex-territorial tax might test the constitutionality of the same, the following is also worthy of consideration:

A citizen of Connecticut, for example, taxed on personal property in Illinois, might obtain a writ of certiorari in an Illinois court, and raise the question that, inasmuch as personal property is held in law to follow the person, the property in question was not taxable in Illinois. And after the courts of Illinois had rendered an adverse judgment, as they undoubtedly would, the owner taxed for the same property in Massachusetts could obtain a writ of certiorari in the courts of that State, and raise the following questions:

1. Want of jurisdiction in respect to the property on the part of the State of Massachusetts.

2. Violation of the Constitution of the United States in denying full faith and credit to the "public acts (tax laws of Illinois) and judicial proceedings" of a sister State.

It needs no argument to prove that under the provisions of the Constitution of the United States, above referred to, both the laws and judicial proceedings of one State are as valid and as much to be respected in another State as the laws and judicial proceedings of the latter State itself. If the courts of Massachusetts, following precedents in that State, should decide that personal property situated beyond the State follows the person residing in Massachusetts, and so disregards the judicial proceedings and public acts of Illinois, a question under the Constitution of the United States would arise, which would give jurisdiction in the United States Court. And as one and the same thing can not occupy two places at the same time, the Federal court must finally decide in which State is the situs of the property for taxation in the case presented. The principle involved in this case would seem to be identical with an attempt on the part of a State to convict a citizen for an offense committed beyond her jurisdiction, in respect to which judgment had already been rendered in a sister State, where the offense had been committed.

As further bearing upon this subject, reference is made to the