In the case of Wilder v. Inter-Island Steam Navigation Company, Limited (1908), the U.S Supreme Court was tasked with determining whether a Hawaiian tax law that imposed higher taxes on foreign corporations than domestic ones violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The Inter-Island Steam Navigation Company, a foreign corporation operating in Hawaii, argued that it was being unfairly taxed compared to local businesses. However, the court ruled against them stating that states have broad powers to levy taxes and can differentiate between different classes of taxpayers as long as there is reasonable basis for doing so. In this case, they found no violation because foreign corporations could potentially pose more regulatory challenges than domestic ones justifying their higher taxation rate.

In the dissenting opinion for Wilder v. Inter-Island Steam Navigation Company, it was argued that the tax imposed by Hawaii on shipping companies should not be considered a duty of tonnage, but rather as an excise tax or license fee for doing business in the state. The dissent pointed out that this type of taxation is common and generally accepted among states. It also noted that there were no federal laws prohibiting such taxes at the time when Hawaii became a territory. Therefore, it was suggested that Hawaii's law should have been grandfathered in and allowed to stand even after its admission into union with other states where similar taxes are prohibited under U.S Constitution Article I Section 10 Clause 3 which forbids any State from laying "any Duty of Tonnage". Furthermore, they believed if Congress had intended to prohibit these types of taxes in new territories joining the Union, they would have explicitly stated so.