Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

“ The State is not bound to furnish a registry, but if it sees fit to do so it cannot use its control as a means to impose a liability that it cannot impose directly, any more than it can escape its constitutional obligations by denying jurisdiction to its Courts in cases which those Courts are otherwise competent to entertain. ”

“ Any probate judge who shall receive a mortgage without collecting the 'recording or registration tax,' etc., is made guilty of a misdemeanor and punished.
On the other hand the Federal Farm Loan Act of July 17, 1916, c. 245, § 26, provides that first mortgages executed to Federal Land Banks shall be deemed—
'instrumentalities of the government of the United States, and as such they and the income derived therefrom shall be exempt from federal, state, municipal, and local taxation.' 39 Stat. 360, 380 (Comp. St. § 9835q) . ”

“ It is said that the lender may collect the money in advance from the borrower. We do not perceive that this makes any difference. The statute says that the lender must pay the tax, but whoever pays it it is a tax upon the mortgage and that is what is forbidden by the law of the United States. ”