Text 4　　States will be able to forcemore people to pay sales tax when they make online purchases under a SupremeCourt decision Thursday that will leave shoppers with lighter wallets but is abig financial win for states.
　　The Supreme Court's opinion Thursday overruled a pairof decades-old decisions that states said cost them billions of dollars in lostrevenue annually. The decisions made it more difficult for states to collectsales tax on certain online purchases.
　　The cases the court overturned said that if abusiness was shipping a customer's purchase to a state where the businessdidn't have a physical presence such as a warehouse or office, the businessdidn't have to collect sales tax for the state. Customers were generallyresponsible for paying the sales tax to the state themselves if they weren'tcharged it, but most didn't realize they owed it and few paid.
　　Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote that the previousdecisions were flawed. “Each year the physical presence rule becomes furtherremoved from economic reality and results in significant revenue losses to theStates,” he wrote in an opinion joined by four other justices. Kennedy wrotethat the rule “limited States' ability to seek long-term prosperity and hasprevented market participants from competing on an even playing field”.
　　The ruling is a victory for big chains with apresence in many states, since they usually collect sales tax on onlinepurchases already. Now, rivals will be charging sales tax where they hadn'tbefore. Big chains have been collecting sales tax nationwide because theytypically have physical stores in whatever state a purchase is being shippedto. Amazon.com, with its network of warehouses, also collects sales tax inevery state that charges it, though third-party sellers who use the site don'thave to.
　　Until now, many sellers that have a physical presencein only a single state or a few states have been able to avoid charging salestaxes when they ship to addresses outside those states. Sellers that use eBayand Etsy, which provide platforms for smaller sellers, also haven't beencollecting sales tax nationwide. Under the ruling Thursday, states can passlaws requiring out-of-state sellers to collect the state's sales tax fromcustomers and send it to the State.
　　Retail trade groups praised the ruling, saying itlevels the playing field for local and online businesses. The losers, saidretail analyst Neil Saunders, are online-only retailers, especially smallerones. Those retailers may face headaches complying with various state sales taxlaws. The Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council advocacy group said ina statement, “Small businesses and internet entrepreneurs are not well servedat all by this decision.”

In dealing with the Supreme Court decision Thursday, the author _____.

A.givesafactualaccountofitanddiscussesitsconsequences

B.describesthelongandcomplicatedprocessofitsmaking

C.presentsitsmainpointswithconflictingviewsonthem

D.citessomecasesrelatedtoitandanalyzestheirimplications