Court Opinion

ID: 9426036
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:16:33.235825+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:22:58.738497
License: Public Domain

Mr. Justice Blackmun,
dissenting.
For me, this is a noncase. I would dismiss the appeal for want of a substantial federal question. We have far more urgent demands upon our limited time than this kind of litigation.
Because the New Hampshire income tax statutes operate in such a way that no New Hampshire resident is ultimately subjected to the State’s income tax, the case at first glance appears to have some attraction. That attraction, however, is superficial and, upon careful analysis, promptly fades and disappears entirely. The reason these appellants, who are residents of Maine, not of New Hampshire, pay a New Hampshire tax is because the Maine Legislature — the appellants' own duly elected representatives — has given New Hampshire the option to divert this increment of tax (on a Maine resident’s income earned in New Hampshire) from Maine to New Hampshire, and New Hampshire willingly has picked up that option. All that New Hampshire has done is what Maine specifically permits and, indeed, invites it to do. If Maine should become disenchanted with its bestowed *669bounty, its legislature may change the Maine statute. The crux is the statute of Maine, not the statute of New Hampshire. The appellants, therefore, are really complaining about their own statute. It is ironic that the State of Maine, which allows the credit, has made an appearance in this case as an amicus urging, in effect, the denial of the credit by an adjudication of unconstitutionality of New Hampshire’s statute. It seems to me that Maine should be here seeking to uphold its own legislatively devised plan or turn its attention to its own legislature.
All this is reminiscent of the federal estate tax credit for state death taxes paid, originally granted by § 301 (b) of the Revenue Act of 1924,43 Stat. 304, and by § 301 (b) of the Revenue Act of 1926,44 Stat. 70, and now constituting § 2011 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954,26 U.S.C. § 2011. States, including New Hampshire and those adjacent to it, through specific legislation, have taken advantage of the credit allowed. Me. Rev. Stat. Ann., Tit. 36, §§ 3741-3745 (1965 and Supp. 1973); Mass. Gen. Laws, c. 65A, §§ 1-7 (1969 and Supp. 1975); N. H. Rev. Stat. Ann. §§ 87:1-13 (1971); Yt. Stat. Ann., Tit. 32, §§ 7001-7005 (1970). The credit provision has been upheld against constitutional attack. Florida v. Mellon, 273 U. S. 12, 17 (1927); Rouse v. United States, 65 Ct. Cl. 749, cert. denied, 278 U. S. 638 (1928).
One wonders whether this is just a lawyers’ lawsuit. Certainly, the appellants, upon prevailing today, have no direct or apparent financial gain. Relief for them from the New Hampshire income tax results only in a corresponding, pro tanto, increase in their Maine income tax. Dollarwise, they emerge at exactly the same point. The single difference is that their State, Maine, enjoys the tax on the New Hampshire-earned income, rather than New Hampshire. Where, then, is the injury? If there is an element of injury, it is Maine-imposed.
*670We waste our time, therefore, by theorizing and agonizing about the Privileges and Immunities Clause and equal protection in this case. But if that exercise in futility is nevertheless indicated, I see little merit in the appellants’ quest for relief. It is settled that absolute equality is not a requisite under the Privileges and Immunities Clause. Toomer v. Witsell, 334 U. S. 385, 396 (1948); id., at 408 (Frankfurter, J., concurring). And I fail to perceive unconstitutional unequal protection on New Hampshire’s part. If inequality exists, it is due to differences in the respective income tax rates of the States that border upon New Hampshire.
I say again that this is a noncase, made seemingly attractive by high-sounding suggestions of inequality and unfairness. The State of Maine has the cure within its grasp, and if the cure is of importance to it and to its citizens, such as appellants, it and they should be about adjusting Maine’s house rather than coming here complaining of a collateral effect of its own statute.