Supreme Court hears a case that experts say could wreak havoc on the tax code

The Supreme Court hears arguments Tuesday in an obscure tax case with potentially trillions of dollars in tax consequences for the federal budget. It is a case that has tax law specialists both gobsmacked and alarmed.

The words of Sixteenth Amendment to the Constitution do not roll off the tongue. Enacted in 1913, it says: "Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration."

In reality, the amendment was passed to reverse a Supreme Court decision that basically had made it impossible to have a federal income tax.

The Trump tax cuts at the heart of the case

The operative understanding of what the amendment has meant for more than a century is now being challenged by Charles and Kathleen Moore. a provision that helps pay for some of those tax cuts.