Reapportionment

“ The third and fourth sections expressly applied to the election of Representatives to which the state was entitled 'under this apportionment'; that is, under the apportionment under the act of 1911 pursuant to the census of 1910. Substantially the same provisions are found in prior reapportionment acts, the requirements as to compactness, contiguity, and equality in population in the new districts in which Representatives were to be elected under the new apportionment being addressed in each case to the election of Representatives 'under this apportionment' ”

“ Congress simply lacks the constitutional power to insulate States from attack with respect to alleged deprivations of individual constitutional rights. [p583]
VIII That the Equal Protection Clause requires that both houses of a state legislature be apportioned on a population basis does not mean that States cannot adopt some reasonable plan for periodic revision of their apportionment schemes. Decennial reapportionment appears to be a rational approach to readjustment of legislative representation in order to take into account population shifts and growth. ”

“ The new apportionment bill which has just been enacted gives to the States already erected in this region almost as many Representatives in Congress as all New England, and another decade will show that it has passed far in advance in wealth and population. ”

“ When the instalment payments and profits of all kinds equal the face value of all the shares issued, the assets, over and above expenses and losses, are apportioned among members, and this apportionment cancels the borrower’s debt, while the non-borrower is given the amount of his stock. A man who wishes to borrow, let us say, $1000 for the erection of a house ordinarily takes five shares in an association, each of which, when he has paid all the successive instalments on it, will be worth $200, and he must offer suitable security for his loan, usually the lot on which he is to build. ”

“ That the apportionment in the one case is made in relation to mileage and in the other to the value of capital 'used, invested or employed within this state' is of no significance, since the states have considerable latitude in the selection of fair methods of making apportionment. ”

“ Apportionment is an operation on states, and involves valuations and assessments, which are arbitrary, and should not be resorted to but in case of necessity. Uniformity is an instant operation on individuals, without the intervention of assessments, or any regard to states, and is at once easy, certain, and efficacious. All taxes on expenses or consumption are indirect taxes.'
Mr. Justice Iredell: ' (1) All direct taxes must be apportioned. (2) All duties, imposts, and excises must be uniform. If the carriage tax be a direct tax, within the meaning of the constitution, it must be apportioned. ”

“ He contended that a valuation of land would probably never take place, and that it was uncertain whether the rule of numbers would be substituted, and, therefore, that the first apportionment might be continued throughout the twenty-five years, although it must be founded on the present relative wealth of the states, which would vary every year in favor of those which are the least populous. ”

“ Impositions of this kind usually fall under the denomination of indirect taxes, and must for a long time constitute the chief part of the revenue raised in this country. Those of the direct kind, which principally relate to land and buildings, may admit of a rule of apportionment. Either the value of land, or the number of the people, may serve as a standard. The state of agriculture and the populousness of a country have been considered as nearly connected with each other. ”

“ If any such legacy shall be given in money to any such person for a limited period, the executor, administrator or trustee shall retain the tax upon the whole amount, but if it be not in money, he shall make application to the court having jurisdiction of an accounting by him, to make an apportionment, if the case require it, of the sum to be paid into his hands by such legatees, and for such further order relative thereto as the case may require. ”

“ And we deem it equally clear that Congress was at liberty under the amendment to tax as income, without apportionment, everything that became income, in the ordinary sense of the word, after the adoption of the amendment, including dividends received in the ordinary course by a stockholder from a corporation, even though they were extraordinary in amount and might appear upon analysis to be a mere realization in possession of an inchoate and contingent interest that the stockholder had in a surplus of corporate assets previously existing. ”

“ In the course of this examination he said:
'Whether direct taxes, in the sense of the Constitution, comprehend any other tax than a capitation tax, and tax on land, is a questionable point. If Congress, for instance, should tax, in the aggregate or mass, things that generally pervade all the States in the Union, then, perhaps, the rule of apportionment would be the most proper, especially if an assessment was to intervene. ”

“ The business which finds it worth while to offer the highest rent or the highest price for any piece of land will, as a rule, be able to command its use. And, with this as the governing principle, an apportionment is secured between shops, offices, factories, agriculture, between the immense variety of different employments covered by each of these broad headings; not a rigid unvarying apportionment, but one which constantly changes as economic circumstances change, and as the margin of transference between different occupations moves hither and thither. ”

“ A tax, indeed, cannot always, or often be apportioned with perfect exactness; as, in other matters of account, there will be fractional parts of the smallest coins, and the smallest denomination of money of account, yet, by the usual subdivisions of the coin, and of the denomination of money, the apportionment of taxes is capable of being made so exact, that the inequality becomes minute and invisible. But representation cannot be thus divided. ”

“ Apportionment in itself prevents taxation of extrastate 'events' or portions of the business done, unless the apportionment is itself constitutionally invalid as not reflecting a sufficient approximation to what the state may be entitled, on the facts, to tax. ”

“ The directors, subject to revision by the stockholders, at any general or special meeting lawfully called, shall apportion the net earnings and profits thereof from time to time at least once in each year in the following manner:
' (1) Not less than ten per cent. thereof accruing since the last apportionment shall be set aside in a surplus or reserve fund until such fund shall equal at least fifty per cent. of the paid up capital stock.
' (2) Dividends at a rate not to exceed eight per cent. per annum, may, in the discretion of the directors, be declared upon the paid up capital stock. ”

“ As pointed out in recent decisions, it does not extend the taxing power to new or excepted subjects, but merely removes all occasion, which otherwise might exist, for an apportionment among the states of taxes laid on income, whether it be derived from one source or another. ”

“ Probably the benefits are in inverse proportion to the income or wealth of the individual, and the heaviest taxes would then have to be apportioned to those least able to pay. Most economists today agree that taxes should be apportioned according to “faculty” or ability to pay. It satisfies better our sense of fairness and is more readily applicable than the benefit theory. In the last analysis, of course, it may be said that taxation in general must confer real benefits upon society or it will not be tolerated. Here, however, we are concerned with a rule of apportionment. ”

“ The completion of this decennial enumeration devolves upon Congress the duty of making a new apportionment of Representatives "among the several States according to their respective numbers."
At the last session I had occasion to return with my objections several bills making provisions for the erection of public buildings for the reason that the expenditures contemplated were, in my opinion, greatly in excess of any public need. No class of legislation is more liable to abuse or to degenerate into an unseemly scramble about the public Treasury than this. ”

“ We do not mean to say that an act laying by apportionment a direct tax on all real estate and personal property, or the income thereof, might not also lay excise taxes on business, privileges, employments, and vocations. ”

“ If congress shall hereafter impose an income tax in order to meet the pressing debts of the nation, and to provide for the necessary expenses of the government, it is advised, by the judgment now rendered, that it cannot touch the income from real estate nor the income from personal property, invested or uninvested, except by apportionment among the states on the basis of population. ”

“ Suppose no mode of valuation adopted, how are the quotas to be ascertained? In answer to this question, I state the following positions; first, that the object of the confederation was to make an equitable apportionment; secondly, that Congress will always, when they direct a valuation, do it in an equitable mode; and thirdly, that a valuation is, at present, impracticable, much less a valuation for times past. These things admitted, and the necessity of an apportionment being also admitted, the question answers itself ”

“ Where in the case of any trade, profession or business it is necessary in order to arrive at the profits or losses of any year of assessment or other period to divide and apportion to specific periods the profits and losses for any period for which accounts have been made up, or to aggregate any such profits or losses or any apportioned parts thereof, it shall be lawful to make such a division and apportionment or aggregation, and any apportionment under this section shall be made in proportion to the number of days in the respective period. ”

“ And if in consequence of any revisal, change, and alteration of the said valuation, any inequality shall be produced in the apportionment of the said direct tax to the several states as aforesaid, it shall be the duty of the Secretary of the Treasury to report the same to Congress, to the intent that provision may be made by law for rectifying such inequality. ”

“ The delegates of Massachusetts Bay, being called on, read sundry objections, transmitted to them by their constituents, to the Articles of Confederation, and thereupon moved, in behalf of their state,—
1st. That the 8th article be reconsidered, so far as relates to the criterion fixed on for settling the proportion of taxes to be paid by each state; that an amendment may be made, so that the rule of apportionment may be varied, from time to time, by Congress, until experience shall have shown what rule of apportionment will be most equal, and, consequently, most just. ”

“ Upon the lapsing of a considerable period after the repeal of the income tax laws referred to, in 1894 [28 Stat. at L. 509, chap. 349] , an act was passed laying a tax on incomes from all classes of property and other sources of revenue which was not apportioned, and which therefore was of course assumed to come within the classification of excises, duties, and imposts which were subject to the rule of uniformity, but not to the rule of apportionment. ”

“ To accomplish that purpose, most States, like Wisconsin in the United States Glue case, and like Minnesota and Georgia in the cases here, have adopted apportionment statutes, applicable to situations where the taxpayer is doing business both within and without the State, which use, as one of the several factors, the total income of the taxpayer in measuring the part of the income that was derived from within the taxing State. ”

“ The great majority of States imposing corporate income taxes apportion the total income of a corporation by application of a three-factor formula which gives equal weight to the geographical distribution of plant, payroll, and sales. [9] The use of an apportionment formula based wholly on the sales factor, in the context of general use of the three-factor approach, will ordinarily result in multiple taxation of corporate net income ”

“ As I read today's opinion, registered voter figures are an acceptable basis for apportionment only so long as they substantially approximate the results that would be reached under some other type of population-based scheme of apportionment. ”

“ The Federation and the Länder may participate, by virtue of an apportionment, in the revenue from the tax on trades. Details regarding such apportionment shall be regulated by a federal law requiring the consent of the Bundesrat. In accordance with Land legislation, taxes on real property and trades as well as the municipalities’ share of revenue from the income tax and the turnover tax may be taken as a basis for calculating the amount of apportionment. ”

“ These are sufficient, in themselves, to shake the foundations of any national government, when no common artificial rule is adopted to settle permanently the apportionment; and every thing is left open for debate, as often as a direct tax is to be imposed. Even in those states, where direct taxes are constantly resorted to, every new valuation or apportionment is found, practically, to be attended with great inconvenience, and excitements. ”

“ In 1860, just prior to the institution of our internal-revenue system, our population but slightly exceeded 30,000,000; by the census of 1880 it is now found to exceed 50,000,000. It is estimated that even if the annual receipts and expenditures should continue as at present the entire debt could be paid in ten years.
In view, however, of the heavy load of taxation which our people have already borne, we may well consider whether it is not the part of wisdom to reduce the revenues, even if we delay a little the payment of the debt. ”