In Joseph Fleming and William A. Marshall, trading under the firm of Fleming & Marshall v. James Page, Collector of the United States, the Supreme Court was tasked with determining whether a tax imposed on goods imported into Baltimore in 1845 violated an act passed by Congress in 1799 that prohibited such taxes from being collected until after 1846. The court found that while it was true that Congress had not authorized any collection of duties prior to 1846, they did authorize certain exceptions for vessels arriving between January 1st and April 30th of each year; thus allowing for some collections to be made before June 1st as long as those collections were limited to vessels arriving during this period. Therefore, since the vessel carrying goods belonging to Fleming & Marshall arrived at Baltimore within this time frame (January-April), their duty could legally be collected prior to June 1st without violating Congressional legislation from 1799.

In the dissenting opinion of Joseph Fleming and William A. Marshall, trading under the firm of Fleming & Marshall v. James Page, Collector of the United States, Justice McLean argued that Congress had no authority to impose a duty on goods imported from foreign countries for use in manufacturing within the United States. He further argued that such an imposition was unconstitutional because it violated Article I Section 8 Clause 1 which grants Congress power to lay taxes and duties only “for revenue” and not for any other purpose. Furthermore, he noted that this tax imposed by Congress was not uniform throughout all states as required by Article I Section 8 Clause 2; rather it discriminated against certain states where manufactures were carried out more extensively than others. Finally, Justice McLean concluded his dissent with a statement asserting that if such taxation is allowed then there would be no limit to what could be taxed or how much could be collected from citizens without their consent through representation in government - thus violating fundamental principles established by our Constitution regarding taxation without representation being illegal.