Long, 110785 MSAGO, 19851107

• Case Date: November 07, 1985
• Court: Mississippi

Honorable Bobby R. Long No. 19851107 Mississippi Attorney General Opinions November 7, 1985          Honorable Bobby R. Long          Senior Attorney          Legal Division          Mississippi State Tax Commission          Post Office Box 1033          Jackson, Mississippi 39205          Dear Mr. Long:          Attorney General Edwin Lloyd Pittman has received your letter of request for an opinion and has assigned it to me for research and reply.          Your request, a copy of which is attached hereto, asks the following question:

“In light of 49 U.S.C.A. § 2311 (Supp. 1985), can the Mississippi State Tax Commission pursuant to Miss. Code Ann. § 63-5-19(2) (Supp. 1984) prohibit the use of fifty-three (53) foot trailers on Federal-aid Primary Systems ( Interstate Systems ), when such trailers were being legally used in this State on December 1, 1982?”

49 U.S.C.A. § 2311 (Supp. 1985), quoted in part in your letter, states inter alia, the following:

a) Except as provided in subsection (i) of this section, no State shall establish, maintain, or enforce any regulation of commerce which imposes a vehicle length limitation of less than forty-eight feet on the length of the semitrailer unit operating in a truck tractor-semitrailer combination, and of less than twenty-eight feet on the length of any semitrailer or trailer operating in a truck tractor-semitrailer-trailer combination, on any segment of the National System of Interstate and Defense Highways (other than a segment exempted under subsection (i) of this section) and those classes of qualifying Federal-aid Primary System highways as designated by the Secretary of Transportation (hereinafter in this part referred to as the “Secretary”), pursuant to subsection (e) of this section. b) Length limitations established, maintained, or enforced by the State under subsection (a) of this section shall apply solely to the semitrailer or trailer or trailers and not to a truck tractor. No State shall establish, maintain, or enforce any regulation of commerce which imposes an overall length limitation on commercial motor vehicles operating in truck-tractor semitrailer, trailer combinations. No State shall establish, maintain, or enforce any regulation of commerce which has the effect of prohibiting the use of trailers or semitrailers of such dimensions as those that were in actual and lawful use in such State on December 1, 1982.

         You state in your letter that prior to December 1, 1982, Mississippi...