No State shall, without the Consent of the Congress, lay any Imposts or Duties on Imports or Exports, except what may be absolutely necessary for executing it's inspection Laws: and the net Produce of all Duties and Imposts, laid by any State on Imports or Exports, shall be for the Use of the Treasury of the United States; and all such Laws shall be subject to the Revision and Controul of the Congress.
nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
Section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution prohibits
states from depriving “any person of life, liberty, or property, without due
process of law . . . .”22 The Supreme Court has held that “t is a venerable if
trite observation that seizure of property by the State under pretext of taxation
when there is no jurisdiction or power to tax is simple confiscation and a
denial of due process of law.”23 In determining whether a state has the
jurisdiction to impose a tax, the Court will adhere to a “time-honored concept:
that due process requires some definite link, some minimum connection,
between a state and the person, property or transaction it seeks to tax.”24
