Opinion ID: 700706
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Discrimination Against Federal Employees

Text: 10 A state tax does not discriminate unconstitutionally against federal employees if the tax is imposed equally upon similarly situated constituents of the state, see United States v. County of Fresno, 429 U.S. 452, 462, 97 S.Ct. 699, 704-05, 50 L.Ed.2d 683 (1977), particularly, those constituents who are in privity with the state imposing the tax, see Davis, 489 U.S. at 815 n. 4, 109 S.Ct. at 1507 n. 4. The Jefferson County tax expressly includes within its scope elected and appointed officials at the municipal, county, and state levels. See Ordinance 1120, Sec. 1(C). 10 Jefferson County has applied the occupational tax to state district and circuit court judges and to Alabama Supreme Court Justices serving in the county, and all of these state judges and justices have complied with the ordinance. 11 Significantly, the occupational tax does not discriminate against judges vis-a-vis other professions. The ordinance imposes a general tax, exempting only those workers who already are subject to state or county license fees. Cf. Fresno, 429 U.S. at 464-65, 97 S.Ct. at 705-06 (holding that a state tax imposed solely on lessees of land owned by tax-exempt entities is not discriminatory because the law leaves such lessees no worse off than tenants who rent from landowners who are taxed). Although employees subject to the Jefferson County tax in some instances may be taxed more than professionals subject to state professional fees, this slight difference in economic burden does not compel a finding of discrimination. There is no evidence in the ordinance of crippling obstruction of any of the Government's functions, no sinister effort to hamstring its power, not even the slightest interference with its property. City of Detroit v. Murray Corp. of Am., 355 U.S. 489, 495, 78 S.Ct. 458, 462, 2 L.Ed.2d 441 (1958). Thus, the occupational tax does not discriminate unconstitutionally against federal employees.