The Great Dissenter by Peter S. Canellos

Author:Peter S. Canellos
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 2021-06-08T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

After such epic thunder—and epic flattery, in Choate’s tribute to “venerable” Justice Field, whose tenure stretched back to the Civil War—the court’s decision came surprisingly quickly, just a month after the start of the arguments. It was as if Chief Justice Fuller were disinclined to allow a single dollar to be collected without the court’s approval. Unfortunately, the court failed to resolve most of the issues; the eight justices split 4 to 4 on three of the most important legal questions. However, a five-justice majority agreed that a tax on rental income was the same as a property tax—or, at least, not “intrinsically” different enough to merit separate treatment. “We are unable to perceive any ground for the alleged distinction,” the chief justice declared.33

Field, the seventy-seven-year-old prophet of free enterprise, went further, suggesting in a concurring opinion that any graduated tax would be unconstitutional on the grounds that it was lacking in uniformity. Channeling the deep emotions that infected all aspects of the case, Field launched into a wistful lecture on economics and good citizenship: “Under wise and constitutional legislation, every citizen should contribute his proportion, however small the sum, to the support of the government, and it is no kindness to urge any of our citizens to escape from their obligation. If he contributes the smallest mite of his earnings to that purpose, he will have a greater regard for the government, and more self-respect for himself, feeling that, though he is poor, in fact, he is not a pauper of the government. And it is to be hoped that, whatever woes and embarrassments may betide our people, they may never lose their manliness and self-respect. Those qualities preserved, they will ultimately triumph over all reversals of fortune.”34

The Louisianan Edward White, who had just joined the court as a Cleveland appointee that year, wrote a dissent challenging Fuller’s contention that taxes on rents were equivalent to taxes on real estate; the first Confederate veteran to be appointed to the court and—by one account, at least—a former Ku Klux Klan member, White was no moderate on the social issues of his time, but he was a deep skeptic of the power of northeastern business elites.35

White proceeded to eviscerate Fuller’s claim of little “intrinsic” difference between a rental tax and a property tax, pointing out that the rental tax is collected only if the property yields income; its application is entirely different from a direct tax on the property itself. “If land yields no rental, it contributes nothing to the income,” White stated. “If it is vacant, the law does not force the owner to add rental value to his taxable income. And so it is if he occupies it himself.”36

Harlan joined White’s dissent and added his view that the court should never have heard the case, because the tax hadn’t been collected yet, and the central issue—whether an income tax was direct or indirect—was already resolved by precedent. “Upon the several questions about which the members of this

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.