Getting a Poor Return: Courts, Justice, and Taxes

Examines competing claims and beliefs about the American legal system in the area of tax policy and tax enforcement.

Public policy often favors one group over another. In the case of tax policy, the conventional wisdom has been that the dominant political coalition will offer policies that favor their primary constituents. The longstanding belief has been that the disfavored group may always assert their rights in court, the expectation being, as Justice John Marshall Harlan wrote, that "all...