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this post was submitted on 06 Jan 2024
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A ruling against wealth taxes would be insane and would essentially overturn our entire history of tax law. But it would be especially nuts in light of the ruling in NFIB v Sebelius that the government can hit you with a tax for doing nothing. That seems utterly incompatible with the idea that the government doesn't have the power to tax owning things and/or amassing wealth.
I guess that would mean you can tax not buying something, but you can't tax not selling something.
You say that as if it's a bad thing.
I'm talking about this in terms of jurisprudence. Judges are supposed to rule based on law and precedent, not just on their personal preferences and political views. It's an essential element of the rule of law. There's very little point in having a constitution or laws if judges just ignore them and do whatever they want. I mean, I think most people here would agree that they do not approve of this Court defying precedent and most reasonable interpretations of the law in order to impose their will on the country.
Obviously, the Court can, has, and sometimes should overturn precedent, and potentially throw out decades or centuries of previously settled law. But generally speaking, that ruling should make a very compelling case for such an action. They would essentially be saying that everyone writing and interpreting the laws for all that time had gotten it wrong (intentionally or otherwise), including potentially the people who wrote the very sections of the constitution that the ruling is based on.
The more specific point I was making was that Roberts had ruled that the government could use the tax power alone to tax "not having insurance" and that it wouldn't run afoul of the constitution as long as it wasn't just a head tax applied to everyone indiscriminately, as that would be a direct tax which must be apportioned among the states.* That's the same clause that is being invoked in this case as a reason why wealth taxes shouldn't be allowed.
A ruling against taxes on unrealized gains would not only require the Court to assert that we've been doing it wrong this whole time and that we only just now figured that out, but Roberts in particular would be doing a complete 180 on the issue. Jumping from one extreme end of the spectrum to the other would be a rather remarkable change, one that would be hard to reconcile without concluding that one decision or the other was dishonest and politically motivated.
* And because it had a regulatory intent, aimed at compelling people to buy insurance, it had to also not be so crippling a burden that it's effects would need to go through police or regulatory powers.