Peabody Coal Co. v. State

OPINION

JACOBSON, Judge.

This appeal concerns whether Arizona can lawfully impose transaction privilege taxes upon Peabody Coal Company (Peabody), a non-Indian coal company, based upon Peabody’s sales to non-Indians of the coal it mines entirely from the Navajo and Hopi reservations in Arizona.

I. BACKGROUND

Peabody is a Delaware corporation with its Arizona headquarters located in Flagstaff, Arizona. Flagstaff is outside the boundaries of any Indian reservation. In 1966, the Navajo and Hopi Tribes and Peabody’s predecessor-in-interest entered into two leases pursuant to the Indian Mineral…