JUSTICES SPLIT ON INTERNET TAX CASE | Trump Tweets About SCOTUS Decision On Immigrants | Gorsuch’s Long Game
April 18, 2018
SPLIT THE DIFFERENCE?
|Yesterday, the justices signaled they are divided about whether to let states start collecting billions in tax revenue from internet retailers. South Dakota wants the high court to overturn its own 1992 precedent which created an internet tax-free zone by exempting retailers that don’t have a physical presence in a state. It seems four of the justices are ready to overturn – JUSTICES ANTHONY KENNEDY, NEIL GORSUCH and CLARENCE THOMAS will likely be joined by JUSTICE RUTH BADER GINSBURG. The question now is if that bunch can find a fifth.
ICYMI
|The high court’s newest justice, a conservative PRESIDENT TRUMP appointee, joined his liberal colleagues this week to strike down a law that allowed the government to deport immigrants who commit serious crimes. The ruling found that the law was too vague to be constitutional. JUSTICE NEIL GORSUCH crossed the ideological spectrum for the first time and wrote in his concurring opinion, “Vague laws invite arbitrary power.” Read the report from Adam Liptak with The New York Times.
ED BOARD OVERTURE
|The Editorial Board of the Los Angeles Times weighs in on the Supreme Court’s Tuesday decision to deem a law so vague it’s unconstitutional. The case centered around the question of deportation, and as LAT Ed Board put it, “It was another welcome recognition by the court that being expelled from this country can be as devastating a consequence as confinement to a prison cell.”
TWEETS DU JOUR
|Someone wasn’t too pleased with the Supreme Court’s ruling on Tuesday’s immigration case. DONALD TRUMP took to Twitter to announce his displeasure and wrote: “Today’s Court decision means that Congress must close loopholes that block the removal of dangerous criminal aliens, including aggravated felons. This is a public safety crisis that can only be fixed by…Congress – House and Senate must quickly pass a legislative fix to ensure violent criminal aliens can be removed from our society. Keep America Safe!” NPR’s Nina Totenberg and Domenico Montanaro report.
IT'S NOT WHAT YOU THINK
|So why did JUSTICE NEIL GORSUCH rule with the liberal justices on the immigration case? Dara Lind with Vox says it has less to do with Gorsuch’s empathy towards immigrants or concern for immigration law than it does for his concern for the power of the federal government.
A LANDMARK LIBERAL VICTORY AND ONE MAN'S LONG GAME
|“Regardless of where Gorsuch takes this idea in the future, he deserves credit for following his principles to a fundamentally liberal result. The justice channeled his inner Scalia, drawing upon a deep skepticism of the government’s power to capriciously punish citizens and immigrants alike. Will his reasoning help a future court annihilate the administrative state? Maybe! But it might rein in overzealous police and prosecutors, too. Progressives should savor their SCOTUS wins where they can find them. And Dimaya is, without a doubt, a landmark liberal victory.” That’s Mark Joseph Stern writing for Slate about JUSTICE NEIL GORSUCH’S decision to join the liberal majority which Stern says is part of the newbie justice’s long game.
SCOTUS VIEWS
Tax Online Shopping Like All Others
USA Today“E-commerce is no longer struggling to get off the ground. It is a half-trillion dollar industry that is doubling in size every five or six years. Computer software can take the complexity out of sales tax collections. What might have seemed like deference to Congress in 1992 now looks like a court-mandated national retail policy — one that is unfair, illogical and anti-Main Street.”
Leave Online Sales Tax To Congress
USA Today“Regardless of the outcome of this upcoming ruling, the issues of compliance and liability will not go away. There is no magic-wand solution that can mitigate the undue burden of mandated tax collection. Convening all stakeholders to mediate a solution to this complex problem is a job best left to Congress. The Supreme Court has already tried to resolve this dispute twice before. It’s just not that simple.”
OTHER NEWS
Supreme Court Showdown: Washington's Attorney General Vs. Tribes Over Salmon Habitat
The Seattle Times“A 20-year battle over salmon-blocking road culverts lands in the U.S. Supreme Court Wednesday, in a historic showdown pitting the Washington state attorney general against the U.S. government and Washington tribes defending their treaty right to fish.”
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Might Be Coming To A Movie Theater Near You
HuffPost“Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg may appear on the big screen in a cameo for an upcoming biopic on her early career. Stephen Root, an actor in ‘On the Basis of Sex,’ told The Hollywood Reporter that the high court justice recently filmed a brief appearance on a set of courthouse steps. The filming occurred in November, according to The Associated Press.”