Mississippi River Fuel Corporation v. Roland Cocreham, Collector of Revenue of the State of Louisiana

WISDOM, Circuit Judge:

The substantive issue for decision is the right of the State of Louisiana to exact severance taxes on oil and gas produced under a lease to a private corporation when the land in question is part of a federal enclave, Barksdale Air Force Base in Bossier Parish, Louisiana. The district court held that the State may exact such taxes. 247 F. Supp. 819. We reverse. When the United States acquired title to the land, it acquired “exclusive jurisdiction” over the property, precluding the State’s levying and collecting a tax on oil and gas • severed from the land by a third…