“The physical power to get the money does not seem to me a test of the right to tax. Might does not make right even in taxation.”

—  Robert H. Jackson

International Harvester Co. v. Wisconsin Dept. of Taxation, 322 U.S. 435, 450 (1944)
Judicial opinions
Context: The physical power to get the money does not seem to me a test of the right to tax. Might does not make right even in taxation. To hold that what the use of official authority may get the state may keep, and that if it cannot get hold of a nonresident stockholder it may hold the company as hostage for him, is strange constitutional doctrine to me.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The physical power to get the money does not seem to me a test of the right to tax. Might does not make right even in t…" by Robert H. Jackson?
Robert H. Jackson photo
Robert H. Jackson 96
American judge 1892–1954

Related quotes

John Marshall photo

“If the States may tax one instrument, employed by the Government in the execution of its powers, they may tax any and every other instrument. They may tax the mail; they may tax the mint; they may tax patent rights; they may tax the papers of the custom house; they may tax judicial process; they may tax all the means employed by the Government to an excess which would defeat all the ends of Government. This was not intended by the American people. They did not design to make their Government dependent on the States. […] If the controlling power of the States be established, if their supremacy as to taxation be acknowledged, what is to restrain their exercising control in any shape they may please to give it? Their sovereignty is not confined to taxation; that is not the only mode in which it might be displayed. The question is, in truth, a question of supremacy, and if the right of the States to tax the means employed by the General Government be conceded, the declaration that the Constitution and the laws made in pursuance thereof shall be the supreme law of the land is empty and unmeaning declamation.”

John Marshall (1755–1835) fourth Chief Justice of the United States

17 U.S. (4 Wheaton) 316, 432-433
McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)

Margaret Cho photo

“Might does not equal right…fortunately, the majority holds power by a very small margin. There are certain things the majority has no right to mess with, certain things that are definitely worth fighting for--worth defending and worth offending.”

Margaret Cho (1968) American stand-up comedian

From Her Books, I Have Chosen To Stay And Fight, ACTIVISM

Josh Homme photo

“Does anyone ever get this right?
I feel no love.”

Josh Homme (1973) American musician

"The Vampyre of Time and Memory", ...Like Clockwork (2013)
Lyrics, Queens of the Stone Age

“Doesn't seem right, does it? A split second to lose him and a lifetime to grieve over him.”

Tim Bowler book Frozen Fire

Source: Frozen Fire

Muhammad al-Baqir photo

“Indeed, faithful is the one who - when pleased and glad, his pleasure does not make him enter into sin and falsehood; and when unhappy and angry, his anger does not oust him from the world of righteousness; and when he gains power, his power does not make him commit excess, nor opression, nor make him go for a thing upon which he does not have any right.”

Muhammad al-Baqir (677–733) fifth of the Twelve Shia Imams

Muhammad Kulayni, Usūl al-Kāfī, vol.2, p. 234

Albert Einstein photo

“No one does anything right in life, until they realize that they are making a mistake”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

“Work does not cause money; getting paid causes money.”

John Barnes book Mother of Storms

Source: Mother of Storms (1994), p. 45

“Why does MOND get any predictions right? It has had many a priori predictions come true. Why does this happen?”

Stacy McGaugh (1964) American astronomer

[Stacy McGaugh, "Degenerating problemshift: a wedged paradigm in great tightness", Triton Station blog, 30 April 2017, http://tritonstation.wordpress.com/2017/04/30/degenerating-problemshift-a-wedged-paradigm-in-great-tightness/]

Frank Chodorov photo

“Taxes cannot be compared to dues paid to a voluntary organization for such services as one expects from membership, because the choice of withdrawal does not exist. In refusing to trade one may deny oneself a profit, but the only alternative to paying taxes is jail. The suggestion of equity in taxation is spurious. If we get anything for the taxes we pay it is not because we want it; it is forced on us.”

Frank Chodorov (1887–1966) American libertarian thinker

Source: Fugitive Essays: Selected Writings of Frank Chodorov (1980), p. 276

Related topics