Shell Oil Company v. Iowa Department of Revenue

Decided November 8, 1988. Thurgood Marshall delivered the opinion of the Court.

Docket 87-984 · 488 U.S. 19 (1988) · Cited 109 times

Holding

The OCSLA does not prevent Iowa from including income earned from the sale of OCS oil and gas in its apportionment formula.

The Court’s statement of the holding, from the opinion’s syllabus. The syllabus is prepared by the Reporter of Decisions and is not part of the opinion of the Court — read the official opinion for authority.

How the Justices voted

Decided 9–0.

“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.

• Maryland v. Louisiana · 451 U.S. 725 (1981)
• Moorman Manufacturing Co. v. Bair · 437 U.S. 267 (1978)
• White Mountain Apache Tribe v. Bracker · 448 U.S. 136 (1980)
• Schwegmann Bros. v. Calvert Distillers Corp. · 341 U.S. 384 (1951)
• Gulf Offshore Co. v. Mobil Oil Corp. · 453 U.S. 473 (1981)
• United States v. California · 332 U.S. 19 (1947)
• Mobil Oil Corp. v. Commissioner of Taxes of Vt. · 445 U.S. 425 (1980)
• Exxon Corp. v. Department of Revenue of Wis. · 447 U.S. 207 (1980)
• Ramah Navajo School Bd., Inc. v. Bureau of Revenue of NM · 458 U.S. 832 (1982)
• United States v. Louisiana · 339 U.S. 699 (1950)
• United States v. Texas · 339 U.S. 707 (1950)
• Aloha Airlines, Inc. v. Director of Taxation of Hawaii · 464 U.S. 7 (1983)

Cited by

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

• Parker Drilling Management Services, Ltd. v. Newton · 587 U.S. 601 (2019)
• King v. St. Vincent's Hospital · 502 U.S. 215 (1991)
• Beecham v. United States · 511 U.S. 368 (1994)
• United States Department of Energy v. Ohio · 503 U.S. 607 (1992)

Official text

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

Explore from here

Thurgood Marshall’s profile · All Supreme Court opinions · The Supreme Court

Source: Supreme Court of the United States, slip opinions (1988). 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).