Internet Retailer – South Dakota sues four big online retailers over sales taxes
The trade associations allege South Dakota’s new sales tax law violates federal law, and ask that the law be set aside immediately, says Steve DelBianco, NetChoice executive director. The groups’ suit claims the South Dakota law violates the U.S. Constitution’s Commerce Clause and guarantees of due process. The Commerce Clause says Congress alone can regulate interstate commerce, and the due process provisions require a definite link and minimum connection between the state and a person it seeks to tax. “An out-of-state retailer whose only connection with South Dakota is to fulfill the South Dakota customers’ requests does not meet the minimum contact test of the due process clause,” DelBianco says.
“The South Dakota law acknowledges it would require a change in federal constitutional doctrine,” DelBianco says. “The law was designed to fast-track to the state Supreme Court and on to the U.S. Supreme Court this challenge to the Quill doctrine.”