Opinion ID: 78216
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 9

Heading: Whether the Act Violates Swisher's Equal Protection Rights

Text: Swisher also argues that the Act's methodology for allocating the assessments violates Swisher's equal protection rights. [13] This argument is without merit because the Act is economic legislation and Swisher is not a member of a suspect class. [E]qual protection is not a license for the courts to judge the wisdom, fairness, or logic of legislative choices. FCC v. Beach Commc'ns, Inc., 508 U.S. 307, 313, 113 S.Ct. 2096, 2101, 124 L.Ed.2d 211 (1993). In areas of social and economic policy, a statutory classification that neither proceeds along suspect lines nor infringes fundamental constitutional rights must be upheld against equal protection challenge if there is any reasonably conceivable state of facts that could provide a rational basis for the classification. Id. (emphasis added). The rational basis test demonstrates the Court's awareness that the drawing of lines that create distinctions is peculiarly a legislative task and an unavoidable one, and perfection is not required in making the necessary classifications. Mass. Bd. of Ret. v. Murgia, 427 U.S. 307, 314, 96 S.Ct. 2562, 2567, 49 L.Ed.2d 520 (1976). Swisher contends that its equal protection rights are violated under Step A of the assessment determination because the maximum excise tax rate on cigars is used in determining the market share for the cigar industry, whereas the actual excise rate is used to determine the market share for cigarettes and other tobacco products. There is certainly a rational basis for choosing a unitary rate rather than the actual excise rate because large cigars are the only class of tobacco products that have a variable excise tax rate based on the price of the cigar. See 26 U.S.C. § 5701(a)(2). We readily conclude that it was not irrational for the Secretary to determine that it would be administratively convenient to choose one tax rate for calculating the market share for cigar manufacturers. Although the total share may not be perfectly equal, the methodology the Secretary uses meets the rational basis test. Swisher also contends that its equal protection rights are violated under Step B because Swisher's intra-class share is determined by the number of cigars sold without any difference based on the cost or size of the cigar, and Swisher primarily produces less expensive, small cigars. Although the distribution of the intra-class share may not be perfect, choosing to allocate the assessment owed by each cigar manufacturer based on the number of cigars sold easily satisfies the highly deferential rational basis test. We readily conclude that it was not irrational for the Secretary to determine that basing this calculation on the volume of cigars sold would be administratively convenient. Because there was a rational basis for the Act's methodology, we reject Swisher's equal protection challenge.