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ed the tax and the question came up before the Supreme Court for final decision. On behalf of the revenue department it was urged that a general income tax, operating alike on all classes, did not involve any violation of the constitutional provision. It was also contended that such a tax was expressly authorized by the Sixteenth Amendment giving Congress power to tax incomes "from whatever source derived." The Court in an exhaustive opinion[4] overruled both these contentions and held the tax to be a violation of the Constitution. [Footnote 1: Art. 3, Sec. 1.] [Footnote 2: Art. 2, Sec. 1, Clause 6.] [Footnote 3: See 157 U.S., 701.] [Footnote 4: _Evans v. Gore_, 253 U.S., 245.] It has often been asserted that a limitation of the federal taxing power is found in the "due process" clause of the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution, providing that no person shall "be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law." This amendment relates to the powers of the General Government. A similar limitation on the powers of the states is found in the Fourteenth Amendment. Taxing laws have frequently been attacked in the courts on the ground that, by reason of some inequality or injustice in their provisions, the taxpayer was deprived of his property without due process of law. In cases involving state laws such objections have sometimes been sustained.[1] There seems, however, to have been no case in which a federal taxing law was declared invalid on this ground, and the Supreme Court has recently remarked that it is "well settled that such clause (viz., the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment) is not a limitation upon the taxing power conferred upon Congress by the Constitution."[2] Nevertheless, it is believed that if a federal tax were clearly imposed for other than a public use, or were imposed on tangible property lying outside the national jurisdiction, or were so arbitrary and without basis for classification as to amount to confiscation, relief might be obtained under the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment. [Footnote 1: See, e.g., _Union Tank Line Co. v. Wright_, 249 U.S., 275.] [Footnote 2: _Brushaber v. Union Pacific R.R._, 240 U.S., 24.] By far the most important and interesting of the implied limitations of the federal taxing power remains to be noticed. That is the limitation which prohibits the National Government from burdening by taxation the property or revenues or obl
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