Valentine v. Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company/Opinion of the Court

Appellees brought these suits to restrain the enforcement of a statute of Iowa known as the Chain Store Tax Act of 1935, Acts 46th Gen.Assem. c. 75 (Iowa Code of 1935, c. 329-G1, § 6943-g1 et seq.). The District Court, composed of three judges, held that the provision of section 4, subdivision b, of the Act (Code 1935, § 6943-g4, subd. b), imposing a tax based on gross receipts from sales according to an accumulative graduated scale, was invalid under the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States as creating an arbitrary discrimination. 12 F.Supp. 760. The case comes here upon direct appeal from a final decree granting a permanent injunction. 28 U.S.C. 380 (28 U.S.C.A. § 380).

The decree is affirmed upon the authority of Stewart Dry Goods Co. v. Lewis, 294 U.S. 550, 55 S.Ct. 525, 79 L.Ed. 1054.

Affirmed.

Mr. Justice BRANDEIS and Mr. Justice CARDOZO dissent.

Mr. Justice STONE took no part in the consideration of decision of this case.