The Supreme Court case seeking to shut down wealth taxes before they even exist

spaceghoti@lemmy.one to politics @lemmy.world – 381 points –
The Supreme Court case seeking to shut down wealth taxes before they even exist
vox.com

The plaintiffs’ arguments in Moore v. United States have little basis in law — unless you think that a list of long-ago-discarded laissez-faire decisions from the early 20th century remain good law. And a decision favoring these plaintiffs could blow a huge hole in the federal budget. While no Warren-style wealth tax is on the books, the Moore plaintiffs do challenge an existing tax that is expected to raise $340 billion over the course of a decade.

But Republicans also hold six seats on the nation’s highest Court, so there is some risk that a majority of the justices will accept the plaintiffs’ dubious legal arguments. And if they do so, they could do considerable damage to the government’s ability to fund itself.

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Bad idea but fun to fantasize about: use some of those patriot act powers I assume exist to drag Republican Congress people off to detention centers because they're enemy combatants. Suddenly Democratic super majority, fewer traitors in government, and an unbearably bad precedent set for the next time Republicans have power.

On the other hand, trump is probably going to try that kind of thing anyway.

On the other hand, trump is probably going to try that kind of thing anyway.

Correct. According to Project 2025, they'll use an old provision in the Constitution to justify using the military to round up anyone who they deem a dissenter. I think there's a later law that prohibits the deployment of troops on American soil, but they're confident they'll have the courts on their side.

Found it.

Deploying the military on home soil isn’t new

They did it for the Rodney King riots

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posse_Comitatus_Act

It's one thing to deploy it as a response to an emergency. It's another to plan ahead of time to use it to stage a coup.

Staging an emergency isn’t that hard, and the courts are on their side

That's why they're planning it. There's plenty of law and precedent against it, but they know all they need is the thinnest veneer of an excuse to get their partisan justices to rule in their favor.

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