Legal Commentary

?Barack Obama as FDR ? Are Presidents Constitutionally Exempt From Tax Increases They Sign??

By Eugene Volokh

A fascinating post from Prof. Sarah B. Lawsky, on TaxProf.

I hadn?t known that FDR ?paid taxes at the rates in effect when he took office, even as statutory tax rates increased,? on the theory that applying the higher taxes ?violated the Constitutional provision that states that the president?s compensation ?shall be neither increased nor diminished during the period for which he shall have been elected.?? (The post includes a copy of FDR?s claim form on the subject.) That was apparently a legally sensible position at the time, but apparently not now, given some intervening precedents on federal judges? salaries, which are governed by a similar provision, minus the prohibition on salary increases. Plus, as Prof. Lawsky suggests, such a claim would be pretty bad politics today, when presidents routinely release their tax returns.

Full post as published by The Volokh Conspiracy on January 27, 2010 (boomark / email).