Court Opinion

ID: 9477896
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 06:34:25.61288+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:46:07.069118
License: Public Domain

DAVID A. NELSON, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
I agree that the judgment of the district court must be affirmed, but I write separately to note that because there is a statute (12 U.S.C. § 1768) granting federal credit unions exemption from taxes imposed by state taxing authorities, I think it is unnecessary to decide whether federal credit unions are “federal instrumentalities” that would enjoy exemption from state taxes even if the statute had never been enacted.
Whether or not the United States Constitution makes federally chartered credit unions exempt from state taxation ex proprio vigore, it does not seem to me that Michigan’s four-year statute of limitations ought to apply here. The United States having brought this action at the request of the credit unions and for their benefit to recover taxes imposed illegally, I believe that the action is subject to the six-year limitations period prescribed by 28 U.S.C. § 2415 whether the illegality stems solely from 12 U.S.C. § 1768 or directly from the Constitution as well.