United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

O'Malley v. Woodrough, 307 U.S. 277 (1939)

O'Malley v. Woodrough

No. 810

Argued April 28, 1939

Decided May 22, 1939

307 U.S. 277

Syllabus

1. The provision of § 22(a) of the Revenue Act of 1936, requiring that there be included in gross income, for the purpose of computing the federal income tax, the compensation of "judges of courts of the United States taking office after June 6, 1932" -- which provision was a reenactment of a similar provision contained in the Revenue Act of June 6, 1932, and part of a taxing measure of general, nondiscriminatory application to all earners of income, -- held constitutional as applied to a judge who was appointed to

Page 307 U. S. 278

the Circuit Court of Appeals subsequently to June 6, 1932. P. 307 U. S. 281.

2. The provision in question cannot be regarded as effecting a diminution of the compensation of the judge in violation of the Constitution, Art. III, § 1, nor as an encroachment on the independence of the judiciary. P. 307 U. S. 282.

Congress did not exceed its constitutional power in providing that United States judges appointed after the Revenue Act of 1932 shall not enjoy immunity from the incidences of taxation to which everyone else within the defined classes of income is subjected.

3. The fact that, at the time of the judge's appointment to the Circuit Court of Appeals, he held the office of federal district judge, to which he had been appointed prior to June 6, 1932, is irrelevant to the matter in issue. P. 307 U. S. 279.

Reversed.

Appeal under § 2 of the Act of Aug. 24, 1937, from a judgment of the District Court denying the Government's motion to dismiss a suit for a refund of income taxes collected under an allegedly unconstitutional Act.