King v. Burwell: Where Were the Tax Professors?

Abstract

King v. Burwell drew unusually wide attention for a tax case. Members of the public, the mainstream media, health care professionals, Washington think tanks, and constitutional, administrative, and health law professors, to name a few groups, all debated the merits of the challengers’ arguments. Everyone, it seems, had something to say about the case — except tax professors.

This short contribution to Pepperdine Law Review’s Tax Law Symposium explores three potential reasons for the tax professoriate's reticence. It concludes that none of those reasons withstand scrutiny and going forward, tax professors should play a more active role in cases like this.