Louis Brandeis

“ Here, there was no question as to the validity of the taxing statute. It was the assessment which the railroad challenged. And an assessment is not an order made by an administrative board or commission, within the meaning of that section. The function of an assessing board is not that of issuing orders. Its function is informational. Its duty is to make findings of fact, and thereby furnish the basis on which other officials are to act in individual instances in levying and collecting the taxes. An assessment does not command the taxpayer to do, or to refrain from doing anything ”

“ For the purpose of jurisdiction in federal courts, the difference between the function of regulating, expressed in orders of a railroad or like commission, and the function of fact finding is vital. Determinations of an administrative board which are merely findings of fact are not reviewable. Keller v. Potomac Electric Co., 261 U.S. 428, 43 S.C.t. 445, 67 L. Ed. 731. Assessments become reviewable judicially only when they are translated into action, as by levy of the tax based on the assessment. ”

“ In a large majority of the cases of this character in which applications for an interlocutory injunction have been made, they have been heard before a single judge; and the propriety of the practice has not been questioned by this court. ”