David Josiah Brewer

“ Equality in right, in protection, and in burden is the thought which has run through the life of this nation, and its constitutional enactments, from the Declaration of Independence to the present hour. Of course, absolute equality is not attainable; and the fact that a law, whether tax law or other, works inequality in its actual operation, does not prove its unconstitutionality. ”

“ The property of a decedent does not at his death become the property of the state, nor subject to its disposal according to any mere whim or fancy. And yet, if it is a purely arbitrary power, I do not see what constitutional objection could be raised to any disposition which a legislature might make of the property of any decedent. ”

“ But when a tax law directly, necessarily, and intentionally creates an inequality of burden, it then becomes imperative to inquire whether this inequality thus intentionally created can find any constitutional justification. ”