4 F.3d 264: Tangier Sound Waterman's Association; John C. Tyler;wellington L. Kitchen; Elijah Lee Wilson, Jr.;john Willard Laird; Edwin C. Smith,jr., ...

Both appellant and appellees cite the case of Toomer v. Witsell, 334 U.S. 385, 68 S.Ct. 1156, 92 L.Ed. 1460 (1948), as governing authority in this dispute, and indeed Toomer is the leading precedent. There the Supreme Court held that a South Carolina statute requiring nonresidents to pay a license fee of $2,500 per shrimp boat, while the fee for residents was $25, violated the Privileges and Immunities Clause. In so ruling, the Court stated that the Clause "was designed to insure to a citizen of State A who ventures into State B the same privileges which the citizens of State B enjoy." Id. at 395, 68 S.Ct. at 1161. However, the Clause "does not preclude disparity of treatment in the many situations where there are perfectly valid independent reasons for it." Id. at 396, 68 S.Ct. at 1162. Thus, "the inquiry in each case must be concerned with whether such reasons do exist and whether the degree of discrimination bears a close relation to them." Id. (footnote omitted). Finally, in dictum, the Court wrote, "The State is not without power, for example, ... to charge non-residents a differential which would merely compensate the State for any added enforcement burden they may impose or for any conservation expenditures from taxes which only residents pay." Id. at 398-99,5 68 S.Ct. at 1163.