By its enactment of 15 U.S.C. § 381 ("Section 381"),
Congress exercised its power to regulate interstate
commerce under the Commerce Clause to immunize outof-state businesses from a state's net income tax if their
only business activity in the state is soliciting orders of
tangible personal property from retailers or wholesalers,
provided that the orders are approved or rejected from a
location outside the state and shipped from out of state.
More than 30 years ago in Wis. Dep't of Revenue v.
William Wrigley, Jr., Co. , 505 U.S. 214 (1992) (" Wrigley "),
this Court held that Section 381 protected more in-state
activities than just express solicitations of orders, with
protected activities extending to both activities ancillary
to solicitation and activities that are de minimis . Since
this Court decided Wrigley , there has been a concerted
effort by states by fiat and state judicial encroachment to
further narrow the scope of federally protected activities
to nullify the protection that Congress afforded multistate
businesses through its enactment of Section 381. Oregon
has been at the forefront of the state encroachment effort
and crossed the federal line here.

(1) Whether Section 381 immunity applies for Santa
Fe Natural Tobacco Company ("Santa Fe") when it
engages in otherwise protected activities in Oregon
to solicit requests for orders from retailers if it also
sends successfully solicited retailer requests for
orders to wholesalers ( i.e., Santa Fe's customers) for
wholesalers to accept and process, and, if ultimately
fulfilled, to be fulfilled by the wholesaler (Santa Fe's
customer) from the wholesaler's own inventory of
product that it previously purchased from Santa Fe
(i.e., the wholesaler makes the sale to the retailer).

Whether Section 381 immunity applies when an out-of-state company engages in solicitation activities and sends retailer order requests to wholesalers for processing