“A state’s tax on another state’s exports - a federal issue and unconstitutional (Art. I, Sec. 9, Cl. 5).”
Incorrect. It reads: “No Tax or Duty shall be laid on Articles exported from any State.” The FEDERAL government cannot tax interstate commerce.
“If congress were allowed to lay a duty on exports from any one state it might unreasonably injure, or even destroy, the staple productions, or common articles of that state. The inequality of such a tax would be extreme. In some of the states, the whole of their means result from agricultural exports. In others, a great portion is derived from other sources; from external fisheries; from freights; and from the profits of commerce in its largest extent.”
http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/a1_9_5s4.html
This is a case of a state taxing a sale that is received inside the state’s borders. A state has every right to do so. If the seller doesn’t want to sell products inside that state, he need not do so. But if he does, he needs to cooperate in collecting the taxes owed.
In Arizona, for example, everyone in the state owes payment of sales tax on items bought from outside the state but paid for inside the state. However, the state has no way of tracking, so the payment is effectively voluntary. This just says if you want to conduct business inside the state - which you effectively do by taking payment from someone in the state and delivering the goods to the person inside the state - then you ensure the tax is paid. Sales tax. On items bought inside the state, by someone who IS conducting business in that state even though they are not physically there.
And since it involves commerce taking place between individuals in different states, it is a reasonable affair for the Federal government to decide.
But the following is a STATE tax issue.
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 Control of the Congress. StateU.S. Const., Art. I Sec. 10, Cl. 2.
If Congress has not passed a laws regarding internet taxation between states, SCOTUS is on shaky ground.
Not only that, the SCOTUS decision even if constitutional, only applies to the parties of the case and any other case with the same questions of laws and fact. Congress and ONLY Congress, not SCOTUS, is authorized by the Constitution to make national law.