The U.S. Supreme Court case Evansville-Vanderburgh Airport Authority District et al. v. Delta Airlines, Inc., et al., 1971 revolved around the legality of airport user fees imposed by local authorities on both interstate and intrastate flights. The airlines argued that these charges were unconstitutional as they violated the Commerce Clause and Due Process Clause of the Constitution, essentially arguing that only federal entities had the right to regulate and tax interstate commerce activities such as air travel. However, in a unanimous decision led by Justice Thurgood Marshall, it was ruled that these fees did not violate either clause because they represented fair compensation for use of facilities provided at airports rather than an attempt to generate revenue or control commerce; hence they were deemed valid user charges instead of taxes or regulations on commerce. Furthermore, it was held that there wasn't any discrimination between interstate and intrastate commerce since all commercial flights paid identical landing fees regardless of their origin or destination which meant no undue burden was placed specifically on interstate trade.

In the dissenting opinion for Evansville-Vanderburgh Airport Authority District v. Delta Airlines, Inc., Justice Douglas argued that the user fee imposed by local airport authorities on airlines was a violation of the Commerce Clause. He contended that such fees were essentially taxes and thus should be subject to scrutiny under interstate commerce regulations. According to him, these charges could potentially disrupt free trade among states if each locality began imposing its own set of fees or taxes on commercial activities crossing their boundaries. Furthermore, he expressed concern about potential discrimination against out-of-state businesses which might not have any political recourse in those jurisdictions levying the charges. Thus, he believed it was necessary for federal courts to scrutinize such local impositions carefully rather than deferring automatically to state and local governments.