Comment by dpark
6 days ago
> Fees have to be justified
Do they? Honest question. Is there a law that says fees must be in some sense justified?
> Calling something a fee doesn't make it a fee if, in substance, it operates like a tax.
This seems like a nonsense response to GP. They gave a definition of fee vs tax that is based on a meaningful distinction and not what it happens to be called.
> Do they? Honest question. Is there a law that says fees must be in some sense justified?
Read the opinion, it isn’t very long. This facet in particular is discussed in detail there.
> They gave a definition of fee vs tax that is based on a meaningful distinction and not what it happens to be called.
GP sounds likes he’s trying out for the inevitable appeal, the tax/fee distinctions argued in the case came from different case law.
From what I can tell with a quick reading, it is not. The opinion states that the fee is a tax and not a penalty and based on that ruling then further rules that the tax oversteps Congress’s delegated authority.
The whole penalty thing seems weird because obviously it’s not a penalty, so I don’t know if the president’s lawyers argued a dumb point and lost or if I’m missing some legal nuance here.
Regardless, the opinion is based on the ruling that the fee amounts to a tax, not that fees must be justified.
Page 18 and ff.
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.mad.293...
> I don’t know if the president’s lawyers argued a dumb point and lost
They argued several dumb points, you’ll have to narrow it down.
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