JUDICIARY: Decisions

Insurance. Can a Federal inheritance tax be collected on a life insurance policy when the decedent had retained the right to change beneficiaries? The Supreme Court ruled, last week, that such a tax can be collected on such a policy. Such a tax is constitutional because it is “not a direct unapportioned tax.”

Gasoline. Can a state legislature fix the price of gasoline? In 1927 the Tennessee legislature had declared gasoline a “public utility,” subject to state price-fixing. The Standard Oil Co. of Louisiana and the Texas Co. protested. The Supreme Court agreed with them. It ruled that gasoline is one of the “ordinary commodities of trade” and “not affected with public interest” and therefore not a public utility.