Mobil Oil Corp. v. Commissioner of Taxes of Vermont

Decided March 19, 1980. Harry Andrew Blackmun delivered the opinion of the Court.

Docket 78-1201 · 445 U.S. 425 (1980) · Cited 395 times

We don’t yet publish a summary of this opinion — read the official text below for the Court’s holding and reasoning.

How the Justices voted

Decided 6–1.

“Concurring” means agreeing with the outcome; any split shown is the Court’s judgment, not each Justice’s reasoning. Source: the Supreme Court Database (Spaeth et al.), Washington University.

Precedents cited

Supreme Court decisions this opinion relies on, ordered by how often it cites each. Cases in our collection link through; others are named.

• Moorman Manufacturing Co. v. Bair · 437 U.S. 267 (1978)
• Butler Bros. v. McColgan, Franchise Tax Commissioner · 315 U.S. 501 (1942)
• Underwood Typewriter Co. v. Chamberlain · 254 U.S. 113 (1920)
• Bass, Ratcliff & Gretton, Ltd. v. State Tax Commission · 266 U.S. 271 (1924)
• Northwestern States Portland Cement Co. v. Minnesota · 358 U.S. 450 (1959)
• Complete Auto Transit, Inc. v. Brady · 430 U.S. 274 (1977)
• Wisconsin v. J. C. Penney Co. · 311 U.S. 435 (1941)
• Japan Line, Ltd. v. County of Los Angeles · 441 U.S. 434 (1979)
• National Bellas Hess, Inc. v. Department of Revenue · 386 U.S. 753 (1967)
• General Motors Corp. v. Washington · 377 U.S. 436 (1964)
• Wheeling Steel Corp. v. Fox · 298 U.S. 193 (1936)
• Norfolk & Western Railway Co. v. Missouri State Tax Commission · 390 U.S. 317 (1968)
• United States Steel Corp. v. Multistate Tax Commission · 434 U.S. 452 (1978)
• Ford Motor Co. v. Beauchamp · 308 U.S. 331 (1940)
• Western Live Stock v. Bureau of Revenue · 303 U.S. 250 (1938)
• Freeman v. Hewit · 329 U.S. 249 (1946)
• Curry v. McCanless · 307 U.S. 357 (1939)
• Hans Rees' Sons, Inc. v. North Carolina Ex Rel. Maxwell · 283 U.S. 123 (1931)
• Northwest Airlines, Inc. v. Minnesota · 322 U.S. 292 (1944)
• United States Glue Co. v. Town of Oak Creek · 247 U.S. 321 (1918)
• Department of Revenue v. Ass'n of Washington Stevedoring Companies · 435 U.S. 734 (1978)
• Norton Co. v. Department of Revenue of Ill. · 340 U.S. 534 (1951)
• Standard Pressed Steel Co. v. Department of Revenue of Wash. · 419 U.S. 560 (1975)
• Fargo v. Hart · 193 U.S. 490 (1904)

Cited by

Later Supreme Court opinions in our collection that cite this case.

• FW Woolworth Co. v. Taxation and Revenue Dept. of NM · 458 U.S. 354 (1982)
• Container Corp. of America v. Franchise Tax Board · 463 U.S. 159 (1983)
• Exxon Corp. v. Department of Revenue of Wis. · 447 U.S. 207 (1980)
• ASARCO Inc. v. Idaho State Tax Commission · 458 U.S. 307 (1982)
• Allied-Signal, Inc. Ex Rel. Bendix Corp. v. Director, Division of Taxation · 504 U.S. 768 (1992)
• Commonwealth Edison Co. v. Montana · 453 U.S. 609 (1981)
• Trinova Corp. v. Michigan Department of Treasury · 498 U.S. 358 (1991)
• Quill Corp. v. North Dakota Ex Rel. Heitkamp · 504 U.S. 298 (1992)
• Comptroller of Treasury of Md. v. Wynne · 575 U.S. 542 (2015)
• Merrion v. Jicarilla Apache Tribe · 455 U.S. 130 (1982)
• Goldberg v. Sweet · 488 U.S. 252 (1989)
• Barclays Bank PLC v. Franchise Tax Bd. of Cal. · 512 U.S. 298 (1994)
• Cory v. White · 457 U.S. 85 (1982)
• D. H. Holmes Co., Ltd. v. McNamara · 486 U.S. 24 (1988)
• Amerada Hess Corp. v. Director, Division of Taxation, New Jersey Department of the Treasury · 490 U.S. 66 (1989)
• Shell Oil Co. v. Iowa Department of Revenue · 488 U.S. 19 (1988)
• Polar Tankers, Inc. v. City of Valdez, Alaska · 557 U.S. 1 (2009)

Official text

Read the official opinion (U.S. Reports, govinfo.gov)

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Source: the U.S. Reports via govinfo.gov; authoring Justice and vote lineup from the Supreme Court Database (Washington University). Citation count from the Free Law Project’s CourtListener bulk data. Data last verified 2026-07-03. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).