In the Fairbank v. United States case of 1900, the U.S Supreme Court ruled that a federal tax on exports was unconstitutional. The case involved John D. Fairbank who had been convicted for not paying taxes on exported oil as required by an act of Congress in 1894 which imposed a stamp duty on bills of lading for goods transported from one port in the United States to another or to foreign countries. Fairbank appealed his conviction arguing that this law violated Article I, Section 9, Clause 5 of the Constitution which prohibits any tax or duty from being laid on articles exported from any state. The court agreed with him and held that while Congress could regulate commerce with foreign nations and among states, it did not have power under these provisions to impose direct taxation upon exports since such taxation would interfere with freedom of exportation guaranteed by constitution's prohibition against taxing exports.

In the dissenting opinion for Fairbank v. United States, it was argued that the tax imposed on exported goods is unconstitutional as per Article I, Section 9 of the Constitution which prohibits any taxation on exports from any state. The majority's interpretation of this clause to only apply to taxes laid specifically because of exportation and not those levied upon a particular occupation or transaction related to exporting was seen as flawed by the dissenters. They contended that such an interpretation would allow Congress to indirectly do what they are directly forbidden from doing - taxing exports. This could potentially lead to abuse where heavy burdens could be placed on certain states under the guise of occupational taxes while actually intending them as export duties. Therefore, in their view, all charges imposed by Congress with respect either directly or indirectly to exports should be considered invalid and unconstitutional.