Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1995
Abstract
We urge you to reconsider your proposal to amend the House Rules to require a three-fifths vote for enactment of laws that increase income taxes. This proposal violates the explicit intentions of the Framers. It is inconsistent with the Constitution's language and structure. It departs sharply from traditional congressional practice. It may generate constitutional litigation that will encourage Supreme Court intervention in an area best left to responsible congressional decision.
Unless the proposal is withdrawn now, it will serve as an unfortunate precedent for the proliferation of supermajority rules on a host of different subjects in the future. Over time, we will see the continuing erosion of our central constitutional commitments to majority rule and deliberative democracy.
Disciplines
Constitutional Law | Law | Taxation-Federal | Tax Law
Recommended Citation
Bruce Ackerman, Akhil Amar, Jack Balkin, Susan L. Bloch, Philip C. Bobbitt, Richard Fallon, Paul Kahn, Philip Kurland, Douglas Laycock, Sanford Levinson, Frank Michelman, Michael Perry, Robert Post, Jed Rubenfeld, David Strauss, Cass Sunstein & Harry Wellington,
An Open Letter to Congressman Gingrich,
104
Yale L. J.
1539
(1995).
Available at:
https://scholarship.law.columbia.edu/faculty_scholarship/2193