Michael Hiltzik: How the Supreme Court could kill a wealth tax before it's been tried
It's getting harder and harder to pretend that the U.S. Supreme Court is much more than an instrument to protect the wealth of America's corporations and its richest citizens.
The latest signal is the court's decision to take a once-obscure tax case known as Moore v. United States. On its face, the case involves the objection by Charles and Kathleen Moore, Washington state residents who have objected to a $15,000 tax bill they received as investors in a small Indian corporation.
But there's much more at stake. The conservative anti-tax advocates backing the Moores are hoping to use the case to stifle the nascent movement in favor of a wealth tax on the richest Americans.
They're explicit about that goal.
"As efforts to design new federal tax systems with potentially troubling constitutional infirmities continue to pick up steam," the conservative Manhattan Institute warned in it has filed to support the Moores, it's up to the court to "clarify the limits of Congress' taxing power before the train has begun rolling unstoppably
