In 2012, Chief Justice Roberts disillusioned conservative and libertarian Supreme Court docket watchers by upholding the Inexpensive Care Act’s mandate that everybody purchase medical insurance as a direct tax. The Chief Justice wrote a wonderful opinion—considered one of his greatest—on why the Commerce and Needed and Correct Clauses don’t enable Congress to mandate that personal residents enter the well being profession market and purchase undesirable medical insurance. However, he held accurately that the medical insurance mandate could possibly be view as a direct tax, and he upheld the constitutionality of the mandate on that floor.
It seems that Chief Justice Roberts was proper that the medical insurance mandate was a direct tax as a result of it was owed if one had earnings of $43,000 a yr or extra. Briefly, it was. an earnings tax, which doesn’t require apportionment in keeping with the census of enumeration as a result of the Sixteenth Modification excepts earnings taxes from the rule of apportionment. It seems that Chief Justice Roberts was the one one of many 9 justices to get NFIB v. Sebelius, 567 U.S. 519 (2012)fully proper!
There’s, nevertheless, dicta in his opinion saying that the one direct taxes for which apportionment is required are capitations and land taxes. That’s incorrect for the explanations I spelled out in my submit on the Volokh Conspiracy final evening responding to Professors Akhil Reed Amar and Vikram Amar. However, it’s is innocent error in dicta as a result of the Sixteenth Modification itself authorizes the insurance coverage mandate tax!
Chief Justice Roberts has an opportunity to redeem himself with proper of middle authorized pundits in Moore v. United States by holding {that a} wealth tax or a tax on unrealized capital good points is a direct tax, which requires apportionment in contrast to the well being care mandate, which is instantly approved by the Sixteenth Modification!