http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/15/AR2006051500559.htmlBy Fred Barbash
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, May 15, 2006; 11:39 AM
The Supreme Court today rejected the District's challenge to an act of Congress that bars imposition of a "commuter tax" on suburban residents who work in the city.
Without comment, the court let stand an appeals court decision upholding the ban as a legitimate exercise of the blanket authority over the city granted to Congress by the U.S. Constitution.
City officials and activist groups have struggled for years to obtain some form of income tax revenue from the thousands of commuters who work in the District but live elsewhere, contending that it should not have to bear the burden of servicing the commuters on its own.
In response, Congress has explicitly barred the city from levying such a tax, either directly or indirectly. The city and supportive advocacy groups challenged that law, contending, among other things, that it discriminated against District residents, who have no representation in Congress, in violation of the equal protection component of the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.
The city also argued that it was unconstitutional to permit other cities to levy similar forms of taxation on commuters while denying permission to the District.
A three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, headed by then Chief Judge John G. Roberts Jr., rejected the contention in November 2005, saying that the city's real dispute lies with the framers of the Constitution, who gave Congress total authority over the nation's capital city.
It was an appeal of that ruling that the Supreme Court declined to hear today. Roberts, now Chief Justice of the United States, took no part in the decision.
The case was Banner, et al. v. U.S.
