Court Opinion

ID: 9858674
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 16:34:47.105998+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:55:27.305542
License: Public Domain

McCORMICK, Presiding Judge,
dissenting on State’s Petition for Discretionary Review.
I dissent. Appellant was formally charged by indictment with the criminal offense of possessing more than five, but less than fifty, pounds of marihuana. Thereafter, according to the majority opinion, the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts sent appellant a tax bill in the amount of $49,070.00 on account of appellant “having purchased, acquired, imported, manufactured, or produced marihuana.” Appellant sent his personal check for $100.00 to the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts. It is not clear that the Comptroller’s office ever negotiated this check.
Appellant now claims the State cannot punish him for the criminal offense because he already has been “punished” for that offense by the “payment” of the $100.00 to the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts. Based on Kurth Ranch, the majority holds the “Texas tax on controlled substances and marihuana is a punishment” under the Fifth Amendment’s double jeopardy clause, and affirms the judgment of the Court of Appeals. See Department of Revenue of Mon*918tana v. Kurth Ranch, 511 U.S. 767, 114 S.Ct. 1937, 128 L.Ed.2d 767 (1994).
However, in this ease, it is completely unnecessary to address the broad constitutional question the majority addresses because there is no evidence Texas taxing authorities are actually trying to collect the entire tax of $49,070.00, and the “payment” of $100.00 out of a $49,070.00 tax assessment cannot be considered “punishment” for double jeopardy purposes. Even the Kurth Ranch Court would not have gone this far. See Kurth Ranch, 511 U.S. at 773, 114 S.Ct. at 1942-43, 128 L.Ed.2d at 774-75 (Montana taxing authorities attempted to collect almost $900,-000.00 in taxes in administrative proceedings). The Kurth Ranch court really seemed to be concerned with what it believed was the excessive tax Montana actually tried to collect from the Kurth family. See Kurth Ranch, 511 U.S. at 780 fn. 17, 114 S.Ct. at 1946 fn. 17, 128 L.Ed.2d at 779 fn. 17 (Montana taxed the marihuana at 400% of its market value). I would hold appellant’s voluntary, de minimis partial “payment” of an assessed tax is not “punishment” under the Fifth Amendment’s double jeopardy clause.
Moreover, it is not even clear whether Kurth Ranch is a “successive punishments” for the same offense or a “successive prosecution” for the same offense ease since the majority opinion in that case seems to hold Montana’s tax was “punishment” but later goes on to conclude the “proceeding Montana initiated to collect a tax on the possession of drugs was the functional equivalent of a successive criminal prosecution.” Compare Kurth Ranch, 511 U.S. at 784, 114 S.Ct. at 1948-49, 128 L.Ed.2d at 781-82, with, Kurth Ranch, 511 U.S. at 805-07, 114 S.Ct. at 1959-60, 128 L.Ed.2d at 795 (Scalia, J., dissenting). Since the law in this area is not very clear especially where, as here, a criminal penalty is at stake, I also would uphold the constitutionality of the Texas statutory scheme at issue in this case and leave it to the Supreme Court to decide whether it violates double jeopardy principles. See Kurth Ranch, 511 U.S. at 804, 114 S.Ct. at 1958-59, 128 L.Ed.2d at 794 (Scalia, J., dissenting) (pointing out that at least one circuit court of appeals has suggested that double jeopardy principles allow a criminal punishment when a civil sanction has already been imposed, and also pointing out that the social costs of the “fictional” multiple-punishments double jeopardy prohibition will be much higher when criminal penalties are at stake).
I respectfully dissent.
KELLER, J., joins this dissent.