Byron White

“ The United States sued for the amount of a tax with interest. The alleged liability under the statute was challenged, and if it existed the statute was alleged to be repugnant to the Constitution of the United States, and right to interest was denied. The court held the statute to be constitutional, and judgment was awarded for the sum claimed, but the prayer for interest was rejected. Error was prosecuted directly from this court by the defendant, and from the circuit court of appeals by the United States ”

“ We do not stop to point out the obvious unsoundness of the contentions, nor, indeed, to direct attention to the self-evident demonstration of their want of merit even from the point of view of the power to classify, since the differences between things domestic and things foreign, and their use, are apparent on the face of things, and are expressly manifested by the text of the Constitution. ”

“ It is also settled beyond dispute that the Constitution is not self-destructive. In other words, that the powers which it confers on the one hand it does not immediately take away on the other; that is to say, that the authority to tax which is given in express terms is not limited or restricted by the subsequent provisions of the Constitution or the Amendments thereto, especially by the due process clause of the 5th Amendment. ”

“ Let it be conceded that the ownership of property includes the right to use; plainly we think, as use and ownership are distinguished one from the other in the provision, the word 'use,' as there employed, means more than the mere privilege of using which the owner enjoys, and relates to its primary signification, as defined by Webster: 'The act of employing anything or of applying it to one's service ”

“ We say we do not stop to do these things because in any event we are of opinion the conclusion cannot be escaped that the propositions, each and all of them, whatever may be their form of expression, are in substance and effect but an assertion that the tax which the statute imposes is void because of a want of intrinsic uniformity ”

“ Rep. 490. Our jurisdiction, however, on the direct writ of error, is not confined to the constitutional questions, but embraces every issue in the case. Williamson v. United States, 207 U.S. 425, 52 L. ed. ”