Harris County, Texas v. PRSI Trading, LLC

i Q UESTION P RESENTED This Court has held that an administrative agency’s decisions made in a judicial capacity have issue preclusive effect. B&B Hardware, Inc. v. Hargis Industries, Inc., 575 U.S. 138, 148 (2015). This Court has also held that deference to an administrative agency’s interpretations of its own regulations under Auer v. Robbins, 519 U.S. 452 (1997), respectively, applies only to interpretations made as part of “the agency’s ‘authoritative’ or ‘official position.’” Kisor v. Wilkie, ___ U.S. ___, 139 S. Ct. 2400, 2416 (2019). This local property tax case involves the application of Customs and Border Patrol’s interpretation of its own regulations in two Headquarters Letter Rulings regarding the status of a foreign trade subzone to determine whether certain property in that subzone—specifically, tens of millions of dollars’ worth of crude oil and refined products at a refinery and tank farm—is exempt from state and local ad valorem taxation under 19 U.S.C. § 81o(e), a provision of the Foreign Trade Zones Act of 1934. The question presented is: Whether the Texas Supreme Court erred in failing to follow the findings of CBP in its Headquarters Ruling Letters in holding that the foreign trade subzone in question was “activated.”