Louis Brandeis

“ It may be assumed that all ground for a claim for refund would have fallen if the state, promptly upon discovery of the discrimination, had removed it by collecting the additional taxes from the favored competitors. By such collection the petitioners' grievances would have been redressed; for these are not primarily overassessment. The right invoked is that to equal treatment; and such treatment will be attained if either their competitors' taxes are increased or their own reduced. ”

“ There is no challenge of the validity of any state statute.
The taxes exacted from the petitioners were laid under Iowa Code, § 1322-1a, Supplement 1913. That section imposes upon 'state, savings and national bank stock and loan and trust company stock and moneyed capital,' an ad valorem tax based upon 20 per cent. of the actual value thereof, computed at the same rate at which tangible property is taxed under the consolidated levy for local, county, and state purposes. ”

“ That section permits a state to tax national bank shareholders if, and only so far as, the taxation is not at a rate greater 'than is assessed upon other moneyed capital in the hands of individual citizens of such State.' The limits of this permission were transgressed when the treasurer exacted from this petitioner taxes at rates greater than those applied in exacting payment from the competing domestic corporations. ”

“ The discrimination was none the less action by the state although the auditor and the treasurer, in failing to give equal treatment, acted without authority and contrary to the law of the state. 'It is a question of the power of the state as a whole'; [4] and, for the purpose of determining whether the limitations imposed by section 5219 have been observed, the powers of the several state officials must be treated as if merged in a single officer. ”

“ The condition imposed by the federal law was not satisfied by the enactment by the state of appropriate legislation for the taxation of other moneyed capital, and the commitment to subordinate officers of the duty of determining what constitutes such capital. ”

“ The Supreme Court found, or assumed, that the systematic discrimination charged was in fact made; that the shares of the favored domestic corporations constituted a relatively material part of other moneyed capital employed in substantial competition with the business of the banks ”