United States v. Constantine

• Citation: 296 U.S. 287,56 S.Ct. 223,80 L.Ed. 233
• Decision Date: 09 December 1935
• Docket Number: No. 40,40
• Parties: UNITED STATES v. CONSTANTINE
• Court: United States Supreme Court

296 U.S. 287

56 S.Ct. 223

80 L.Ed. 233

UNITED STATES

v CONSTANTINE.

No. 40.

Argued Nov. 14, 1935.

Decided Dec. 9, 1935.

Messrs. Homer S. Cummings, Atty. Gen., and

Gordon Dean, of Washington, D.C., for the United States.

Mr. Wm. S. Pritchard, of Birmingham, Ala., for respondent.

Mr. Justice ROBERTS delivered the opinion of the Court.

In November, 1934, an information was filed in the District Court for Northern Alabama charging that on October 8, 1934, at Birmingham, Ala., the respondent conducted the business of a retail dealer in malt liquor contrary to the laws of the state, without having paid the special excise tax of $1,000 imposed by section 701 of the Revenue Act of 1926.¹ A demurrer and a motion to quash were overruled, a plea of not guilty was entered, and a jury trial was waived. Pursuant to a stipulation of facts, the court found that for the fiscal year July 1, 1934, to June 30, 1935, the respondent registered with the collector of internal revenue as a retail liquor dealer and paid the tax of $25.00 imposed upon such dealers by Rev. St. § 3244, as amended;² on the date named in the information the respondent had a restaurant in Birmingham, where he conducted the business of a retail dealer in malt liquors containing more than one-half of one percent alcohol, which business was contrary to the laws of the state and of the city; and had not paid the $1,000 tax. Respondent's motion for judgment was denied, that of the United States was granted, and the respondent was sentenced. The Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the judgment³ on the ground that the section became inoperative upon the repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment.

In its petition for certiorari the United States, though admitting the absence of a conflicting decision by the Circuit Court of Appeals of any other circuit, called attention to diverse decisions in the District Courts,⁴ to the many other cases pending in which action is awaiting authoritative settlement of the question presented herein, to the large amount of money involved, and to the number of persons whose liability will remain uncertain until the dispute is finally settled. The question thus assumes the importance required by Rule 38 and the writ issued accordingly.

In concluding that the law imposed a penalty in aid of the enforcement of the Eighteenth Amendment, and therefore fell with its repeal, the court relied upon the legislative history and administrative interpretation of section 701, and also thought such a construction necessary to avoid a serious question under article 1, § 8, of the Constitution as to the uniformity of operation of the act throughout the United States. The government insists that the section was not a part of the machinery for enforcing the prohibition amendment, but a revenue measure levying an excise conformably to the Constitution.

First. The government attacks, and the respondent supports, the conclusion of the court below that the section was adopted pursuant to the Eighteenth Amendment. We think little aid is to be had from the legislative history. On the one hand, it is said that the substance of the section was originally embodied in the Revenue Act of 1918 which became a law February 28, 1919 (40 Stat. 1057); that while under consideration by Congress in the autumn of 1918 the bill contained the section in question; and that, when enacted, it was made effective as of January 1, 1919. As the Eighteenth Amendment was not proclaimed until January 9, 1919, effective January 9, 1920, the argument is that the Act of 1918 was independent revenue legislation and no section of it could have been intended to enforce fundamental law which was to become operative long after the passage of the act. From the fact that the provision for the additional tax of $1,000 was carried forward from the Act of 1918 through those of 1921 and 1924 into that of 1926⁵ the conclusion is drawn that the tax remained, as it was in the beginning, a means of raising revenue, and that its purpose was not altered by the existence of national prohibition when it was readopted as section 701 of the Revenue Act of 1926. Reference is also made to the fact that the section was specifically repealed by the Revenue Act of 1935⁶ and the deduction is drawn that Congress thought it had no relation to the prohibition amendment.

On the other hand, the respondent urges that the proclamation of the Amendment prior to the passage of the Act of 1918 made prohibition a certainty; that the tax of $1,000 laid upon violators of state liquor laws, in addition to the graded excises on various forms of the liquor business prescribed by Rev. St. § 3244, as amended, and the retention of the $1,000 tax in the 1926 act, which discarded the many existing excises on other business, evince a purpose to prohibit rather than to tax liquor traffic violative of state laws.

For reasons presently to be stated we find it unnecessary to decide whether the policy exhibited by the act at its inception was independent of the Eighteenth Amendment or in subvention of it.

Second. The court below and the respondent regard the administrative construction as persuasive that the section is penal in character. After the adoption of the Revenue Act of 1926 the Treasury ruled that the so-called tax of $1,000 was a penalty.⁷ Upon repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment the position was reversed; collectors were instructed to treat the item as a special tax; and the Department proceeded to prepare and distribute appropriate revenue stamps to be issued in token of its payment. We think the administrative practice has little bearing upon the question of the nature of the exaction. During the life of the Amendment collection was lawful whether the demand was for a tax or a penalty; and the classification by the administrative officers was therefore immaterial. Congress then had power, in the enforcement of prohibition, to impose penalties for violations of national prohibitory laws.⁸

Third. The repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment renders it necessary to determine whether the exaction is in fact a tax or a penalty. If it was laid to raise revenue its validity is beyond question notwithstanding the fact that the conduct of the business taxed was in violation of law. The United States has the power to levy excises upon occupations,⁹ and to classify them for this purpose; and need look only to the fact of the exercise of the occupation or calling taxed, regardless of whether such exercise is permitted or prohibited by the laws of the United States¹⁰ or by those of a state.¹¹ The burden of the tax may be imposed alike on the just and the unjust. It would be strange if one carrying on a business the subject of an excise should be able to excuse himself from payment by the plea that in carrying on the business he was violating the law. The rule has always been otherwise. The tax imposed by Rev. St. § 3244, as amended,¹² affords an opposite illustration. That act imposes an excise, varying in amount, upon different forms of the liquor traffic. The respondent paid the annual tax of $25 thereby required, despite the fact that he was violating local law in prosecuting his business. Undoubtedly this was a true tax for which he was liable. The question is whether the exaction of $1,000 in addition, by reason solely of his violation of state law, is a tax or a penalty. If, as the court below thought, section 701 was part of the enforcing machinery under the Amendment, it automatically fell at the moment of repeal.¹³

But even though the statute was not adopted to penalize violations of the amendment, it ceased to be enforceable at the date of repeal, if, in fact, its purpose is to punish rather than to tax. The only color for the assertion of congressional power to ordain a penalty for violation of state liquor laws is the Eighteenth Amendment, which gave to the federal government power to enforce nation-wide prohibition.¹⁴ That has been recalled; and the case must be decided in the light of constitutional principles which would have been applicable had the Amendment never been adopted. In the acts which have carried the provision, the item is variously denominated an occupation tax, an excise tax, and a special tax. If in reality a penalty it cannot be converted into a tax by so naming it,¹⁵ and we must ascribe to it the character disclosed by its purpose and operation, regardless of name.¹⁶ Disregarding the designation of the exaction, and viewing its substance and application, we hold that it is a penalty for the violation of state law, and as such beyond the limits of federal power.

Since 1878, the revised statutes have classified various forms of the liquor traffic for the payment of excises differing in amount according to the nature of the business.¹⁷ When the section exacting $1,000 additional from all persons engaged in the traffic in violation of state law was made a part of the revenue laws, the amount of the tax due by the respondent under Rev. St. § 3244, as amended, was $25. The so-called excise of $1,000 is forty times as great. It is ten times as great as the annual tax under Rev. St. § 3244, as amended, for wholesale liquor dealers and brewers, and fifty times as great as that imposed upon dealers in malt liquors. If the imposts under Rev. St. § 3244, as amended, were fixed in amount in accordance with the importance of the business or supposed ability to pay, the exaction in question is highly exorbitant. This fact points in the direction of a penalty rather than a tax.

The condition of the imposition is the commission of a crime. This, together with the amount of the tax, is again significant of penal and prohibitory intent rather than the gathering of revenue.¹⁸ Where, in addition to the normal and ordinary tax fixed by law, an additional sum is to be collected by reason of conduct of the taxpayer violative of the law, and this additional sum is grossly disproportionate to the amount of the normal tax, the...