The U.S. Supreme Court case Fidelity Assurance Association et al. v. Sims, Auditor of the State of West Virginia, et al., 1942 revolved around a dispute over taxation laws in West Virginia and their application to insurance companies operating outside the state but selling policies within it. The plaintiffs were out-of-state insurance firms who argued that they were being unfairly taxed by West Virginia's tax code which levied higher taxes on out-of-state insurers than those based in the state itself. They claimed this violated both due process and equal protection clauses under the Fourteenth Amendment as well as violating interstate commerce regulations. However, the court ruled against them stating that there was no violation of either clause or regulation because these taxes did not discriminate against interstate commerce nor deny any fundamental fairness required by due process or equal protection clauses since all businesses are subject to some form of local taxation when operating within a particular jurisdiction.

In the dissenting opinion for Fidelity Assurance Association v. Sims, Justice Frank Murphy argued that the majority's decision to uphold West Virginia's tax on foreign corporations was inconsistent with previous Supreme Court rulings and violated the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution. He contended that this tax unfairly burdened out-of-state companies by taxing them at a higher rate than in-state businesses, creating an unconstitutional barrier to interstate commerce. Furthermore, he believed that there was no substantial difference between insurance business transactions and other types of commercial activities; thus they should not be treated differently under law when it comes to taxation policies. This unequal treatment could potentially discourage out-of-state insurers from doing business in West Virginia which would limit competition and harm consumers.