In the case of California v. Buzard, 1965, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of Buzard, stating that California's imposition of a use tax on military personnel who bought cars out-of-state while stationed there violated their rights under the Soldiers' and Sailors' Civil Relief Act (SSCRA). The SSCRA was designed to protect servicemen from being disadvantaged by state laws due to their transient lifestyle caused by military service requirements. In this case, Air Force Sergeant Buzard purchased a car in Germany and brought it back to California when he returned from his overseas duty station. He was then charged with a use tax for bringing an out-of-state vehicle into California which he refused to pay arguing that as per SSCRA such taxes should not be imposed on him because his presence in the state was solely due to military orders.

In the dissenting opinion for California v. Buzard, 1965, Justice Harlan disagreed with the majority's interpretation of the Servicemen's and Veterans' Survivor Benefits Act. He argued that Congress intended to protect servicemen from bearing an undue financial burden due to their military service but did not intend to grant them a broad immunity from state taxation. The justice believed that this case was about whether a state could impose its vehicle registration fee on a serviceman who had already paid such fees in another jurisdiction where he was stationed by military orders. In his view, it would be absurd if every time a soldier is transferred across states lines they were exempted from paying any new taxes or fees imposed by their new home state simply because they had already paid similar charges elsewhere. This would result in unfair benefits for soldiers over civilians and create administrative chaos as states tried to determine what other jurisdictions' taxes and fees should be credited against their own.