Dow Jones & Co. v. State Ex Rel. Oklahoma Tax Commission

OPALA, Vice Chief Justice.

The dispositive issue on review is whether a use tax levy on some but not all publications — based on sales price or mode of delivery — is an impermissible burden on rights protected by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. We answer in the affirmative.

I

THE ANATOMY OF LITIGATION

A

Dow Jones & Company, Inc. [Taxpayer] publishes and daily circulates The Wall Street Journal. The Taxpayer also publishes Barron’s National Business and Finance Weekly, the National Business Em ployment Weekly and The Asian Wall Street Journal Weekly. Most issues of these publications…