Senior v. Braden

I think the judgment should be affirmed.

Tax laws are neither contracts nor penal laws. The obligation to pay taxes arises from the unilateral action of government in the exercise of the most plenary of sovereign powers, that to raise revenue to defray the expenses of government and to distribute the burden among those who must bear it. See Alabama v. United States, 282 *434U. S. 502, 507. To that obligation, are subject all rights of persons and property which enjoy the protection of the sovereign and are within the reach of its power.

For centuries no principle of law has won more ready or…