The Supreme Court upheld a Georgia court ruling.

The justices, by a 9-0 vote, upheld Georgia court rulings permitting that state to collect property taxes from banks after allowing only a limited deduction for the federal securities held by those banks. In an opinion written by Justice Harry A. Blackmun, the court said states do not have to deduct the full value of tax-exempt U.S. obligations when calculating a bank’s property tax liability. Rather, Blackmun said, states may exclude from a bank’s net worth only that portion of the federal obligations “properly attributable to assets rather than to liabilities.”