Does the tax law violate the Constitution by treating states differently
The article discusses the provision of the tax law that limits deductions of state taxes to $10,000. IMO this is treating states equally, and the prior law treated the citizens of states differently by allowing people in high state tax states to deduct a lot more than people from lower state tax states.
Perhaps the citizens of high tax states should demand that their states lower taxes.
There are some good comments at the end of the article.
Some governors of high-tax states are considering a constitutional challenge to the $10,000 cap on state and local deductions for income and property taxes in the tax bill passed by Congress last month.
Among those considering a challenge are incoming New Jersey Gov. Philip Murphy, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and California Gov. Jerry Brown, Reuters reports. The New York Times, another Reuters article and Josh Blackman’s Blog also look at the issue.
Cuomo vowed to challenge the tax law in his State of the State address on Wednesday, Politico reports. “They’re now robbing the blue states to pay for the red states. … It is an economic civil war, and make no mistake, they are aiming to hurt us,” Cuomo said. “We believe it is illegal and we will challenge it in court as unconstitutional … the first federal double-taxation in history, violative of states’ rights and the principle of equal protection.”
Cornell University law professor Michael Dorf makes a similar argument at Verdict. His theory: The cap was intended to punish people in Democratic-leaning states, violating the right to expressive association under the First Amendment and inferred federalism and equal-protection principles.