'To Lay and Collect Taxes': The Constitutional Case for Progressive Taxation

Abstract:     
This article lays out the constitutional underpinnings of progressive taxation and demonstrates the breadth of government's power to tax. It takes the position that limits on the taxing power must yield to pragmatism and that the Supreme Court, for sound policy reasons, has consistently vindicated an expansive view of the taxing power, a view which easily encompasses vertical equity and, hence, the power to tax progressively. The article responds in part to Calvin Massey's revival of Richard Epstein's suggestion that progressive taxation might violate the Fifth Amendment's Takings clause.

Accepted Paper Series