ATLANTA – West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey’s office argued to protect the authority of states to lower taxes for citizens in federal court.
Morrisey said his office wrapped up arguments September 13 in the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta. The case focused on the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. The Biden administration had appealed a November 2021 ruling
Morrisey’s office led a 13-state bipartisan coalition in suing the Biden administration on the tax mandate attached to act. The coalition claims federal treasury officials cannot force states to relinquish control of their taxing authority in return for economic aid related to COVID-19. The states took specific issue with a stimulus bill provision that the coalition referred to as one of the most egregious power grabs by the federal government in the nation’s history.
“This is about states’ sovereignty and a signal to this administration and Congress that they must operate within the confines of the Constitution,” Morrisey said. “Our lawsuit was designed to protect West Virginia from federal overreach. We have accomplished that with the November win, but the Biden administration kept on insisting their interpretation of the law is correct. It is not.”
In November, a federal court judge said the tax mandate violates the U.S. Constitution’s Spending Clause and said Congress must be clear if it intends to impose a condition on the granting of federal monies — that is, it must do so unambiguously. The Department of the Treasury and the Secretary of the Treasury appealed that decision in January.
Morrisey’s coalition claims the tax mandate violates the Spending Clause because it is ambiguous, coercive in tying this condition to billions in funds to the states, unrelated to APRA’s purpose of repairing the pandemic’s economic damage and independently unconstitutional.
Morrisey also argued the tax mandate violates the 10th Amendment’s anti-commandeering rule by improperly directing the activities of state legislators and tax assessors.
West Virginia co-led the coalition with Alabama and Arkansas with support from Alaska, Florida, Iowa, Kansas, Montana, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota and Utah.
United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit case number 22-10168 (U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama case number 7:21-cv-465)