es for its
own residents.[173] But a State may not give a preference to resident
creditors in the administration of the property of an insolvent foreign
corporation.[174] An act of the Confederate Government, enforced by a
State, to sequester a debt owed by one of its residents to a citizen of
another State was held to be a flagrant violation of this clause.[175]

ACCESS TO COURTS

The right to sue and defend in the courts is one of the highest and most
essential privileges of citizenship, and must be allowed by each State
to the citizens of all other States to the same extent that it is
allowed to its own citizens.[176] The constitutional requirement is
satisfied if the nonresident is given access to the courts of the State
upon terms which, in themselves, are reasonable and adequate for the
enforcing of any rights he may have, even though they may not be
technically the same as those accorded to resident citizens.[177] The
Supreme Court upheld a State statute of limitations which prevented a
nonresident from suing in the State's courts after expiration of the
time for suit in the place where the cause of action arose,[178] and
another such statute which suspended its operation as to resident
plaintiff, but not as to nonresidents, during the period of the
defendant's absence from the State.[179] A State law making it
discretionary with the courts to entertain an action by a nonresident of
the State against a foreign corporation doing business in the State, was
sustained since it was applicable alike to citizens and noncitizens
residing out of the State.[180] A statute permitting a suit in the
courts of the State for wrongful death occurring outside the State, only
if the decedent was a resident of the State, was sustained, because it
operated equally upon representatives of the deceased whether citizens
or noncitizens.[181]

TAXATION

A State may not, in the exercise of its taxing power, substantially
discriminate between residents and nonresidents. A leading case is Ward
_v._ Maryland,[182] in which the Court set aside a State law which
imposed special taxes upon nonresidents for the privilege of selling
within the State goods which were produced outside it. Likewise, a
Tennessee statute which made the amount of the annual license tax
exacted for the privilege of doing railway construction work dependent
upon whether the person taxed had his chief office within or without the
State, was found to be incompatib