Income Tax Cases. State ex rel. Bolens v. Frear

Summary

The court held that the statewide constitutional challenge to the income-tax statute properly invoked its original jurisdiction because the statute materially affected the state's taxing system and the liberties of the people. It sustained the statute as a whole, rejecting the principal challenges to progressive rates, classifications, exemptions, administrative appointments, and retroactivity, while leaving several issues for concrete future cases. The court dismissed the Bolens action on the merits and affirmed the circuit court's dismissal of the Winding taxpayer action for lack of jurisdiction. Tinlin, J., dissenting in part, would have rejected both taxpayer actions and opposed the court's broad original-jurisdiction approach; Marshall, J., concurring, agreed with the result and prerogative characterization but disagreed that circuit courts lacked jurisdiction over taxpayer suits concerning state disbursements and would have decided more constitutional questions immediately.