Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-03-16
I h { INC ONE TAX.
II 1t Becomes q Law Will Not Affect
United States Judges.
Chfef Justice Taney's Letter on the
subject Spread on the Minutes
of the Court.

to the salaries of United Sta es iudges7
This is question which appears to have
been answered in the negative by the Su
preme Court Of the United States There is
on file in the minutes of the proceedings of
the court letter from Chief Justice Taney
to the Secretary of the Treasury passing
upon that point in a manner virtually
amounting to a decision by the Supreme
Court upon the subject. The letter of the
chief Justice, which was placed upon the
minutes by order of the court, is as follows:
Chief Justice Taney's Letter.
WASHINGTON. February 6, 1853.
Sir: L find that the act of Congress of
the last session imposing a tax of 3 per
cent on the salaries of all officers in the
employment of the United States has been
construed in your department to embrace
judicial officers, and the amount of the tax
has been deducted from the salaries of the
judges.
1.-THE first section of the third article of
the Constitution provides that the judicial
power of the United States shall be vested
in one Supreme Court and such inferior
courts as Congress may from time to time
ordain and establish. The judges of the
supreme and inferior courts shall hold their
offices during good behavior, and shall at
stated times receive for their services a
compensation which shall not be dimin-
ished during their continuance in Office.
1.-The act in question, you interpret
1T, diminishes the compensation of every
Judge per cent, and If it can be dimin-
ished to that extent by the name Of a tax
it may In the same way be reduced from
time to time at the pleasure of the legis-
lature.
'The judiciary is one of the three great
departments of the government, created
and established by the Constitution. Its
duties and powers are specifically set forth
and are Of a character that requires il 10
be perfectly Independent of the two other
departments, and in order to place IL be-
yond the reach and above even the suspi-
cion of any such influence the power to
reduce their compensation is expressly
withheld from Congress and excepted from
their powers of legislation.
Language could not be more plain than
that used in the Constitution. II is, more
over, one of its most important and essen
tial provisions. For the articles which
limit the powers of the legislative and ex-
ecutive branches of the government and
those which provide safeguards for the pro-
lection of the citizen in his person and
property would be of little use without a
judiciary to uphold and maintain them
which was free from every influence, direct
or indirect, that might by possibility in
times of political excitement warp their
judgments.
Upon these grounds / regard the act of
Congress retaining in the treasury a por-
ton of the compensation of the judges as
unconstitutional and void; and ! should not
have troubled you with this letter II there
was any mode by which the question could
be decided in judicial proceeding. But AL
of the judges of the courts of the United
States have an interest i'm the question, and
could not therefore, with propriety, under
take to hear and decide it.
Il am, however, not willing to leave IL u
be inferred from my silence that i admit
N he tQ mi N
this or any other mode the compensation
OF the judges when once fixed by Jaw,
and my silence would neutrality-suspicious.
necessarily-be looked upon as acquiescence
on my part in the power claimed and eX-
ercised under this act of Con gress: and
would be regarded as a precedent. estab b.
fishing the principle that the legislature
may. at its pleasure, regulate the salaries
of the judges of the courts of the United
States and may reduce their compensa-
ton whenever Congress NAV think proper.
Having been honored with the highest
judicial station under the Constitution
feel il to be more especially my duty to
uphold and maintain the constitutional
rights of that department of the govern
ment, and not by any act or word of mine
leave II to be supposed that / acquiesce in
measure that displaces it from the indie
pendent position assigned to il by the
statesmen who framed the Constitution,
and in order to guard against any such in
ference / present to you this respectful but
firm and decided remonstrance against the
authority you have exercised under this
act OF Congress and request you 10 place
this protest upon the public files of your
office as the evidence that i have done
everything in my power to preserve and
maintain the judicial department IN the
position and rank I'm the government which
the Constitution has assigned to it.
Il am, sir, very respectfully. yours.
''R. b. TANEY."
Secretary Of the Treasury
What Brought Ii Ont,
This letter was occasioncd by the fact
that when the income tax law was put into
operation during the war il was the GUS
tom of the Treasury Department in paving
the salaries of United States officials 10
deduct the amount Of the tax from the
salary. 1t appears that after receiving the
foregoing letter from Chief Justice Tsney
the Treasury Department, not only de-
sisted from further inroads upon the SAL
aries of the judges. but refunded to them
the amounts that had beea deducted evil
IDENTIFY taking the letter Of the Chief Jus
tice as having the force and weight of a
decision by the court under the circum-
stances.
There is also in the records decision by
the court holding that the salaries of state
judges are exempt from taxation. This
is found in the case of burlington against
Day, in IL Wallace, 113.
The Constitution provides similar immun-