The U.S. Supreme Court case Kern-Limerick, Inc. et al. v. Scurlock, Commissioner of Revenues for Arkansas in 1953 revolved around the issue of taxation on interstate commerce and whether it violated the Commerce Clause of the Constitution. The appellants were out-of-state corporations engaged in selling and delivering fuel oil to customers within Arkansas who used it to generate electricity that was then sold both inside and outside the state lines. They challenged an Arkansas law imposing a tax on their sales as unconstitutional because they believed it interfered with interstate commerce by taxing activities beyond its jurisdictional reach. However, the Supreme Court upheld this tax ruling that it did not violate any constitutional provisions regarding interstate commerce since these transactions occurred within state boundaries before being transported across states lines for use elsewhere; hence falling under local commercial activity subject to state taxation powers.

In the dissenting opinion for Kern-Limerick, Inc. et al. v. Scurlock, Commissioner of Revenues for Arkansas (1953), it was argued that the majority's decision to uphold an Arkansas tax on natural gas contradicted previous rulings by the Supreme Court regarding interstate commerce and taxation rights of states. The dissenters believed that this tax constituted a direct burden on interstate commerce because it taxed goods in transit across state lines, which they saw as a violation of federal law under the Commerce Clause of the U.S Constitution. They also expressed concern about potential negative impacts on national economic unity if individual states were allowed to impose such taxes without restriction or oversight from Congress or federal courts.