In Brown v Maryland, 12 Wheat. 419 (1827), the U.S. Supreme Court held that a Maryland law requiring importers of foreign goods to obtain a license violated the Constitution’s prohibition on import taxes and undermined federal authority over interstate and foreign commerce. The decision established the “original package doctrine,” under which state taxes could not be imposed on foreign goods or their importer so long as the goods had not yet been sold and were still in their original packages.
