Production Steel Strip Corp. v. City of Detroit

The immunity from state taxation of imports under the United States Constitution "survives their arrival in this country and continues until they are sold, removed from the original package, or put to the use for which they are imported.” Hooven & Allison Co v Evatt, 324 US 652; 65 S Ct 870; 89 L Ed 1252 (1945).

We know from Hooven that commodities imported for use in manufacturing, like commodities imported for other uses, retain their immunity until they are

—"used” by the importer, per Chief Justice Marshall in Brown v Maryland, 25 US (12 Wheat) 419; 6 L Ed 678 (1827), or

—"put to the use for…