![handle is hein.journals/endnot84 and id is 1 raw text is:
THE TAXING QUESTION OF INCOME: HISTORICAL INSIGHTS
ON THE MEANING OF INCOME MAY PRESERVE THE
INCOME TAX
DONALD B. TOBIN AND ELLEN P. APRILL*
INTRODUCTION
In Through the Looking Glass, Humpty Dumpty explains, When Iuse
a word ... it means just what I choose it to mean-neither more nor less.'
As Alice explores this interpretive method, Alice gives up; [s]he was too
much puzzled to make any other remark.2
Many tax lawyers felt similarly confused by recent efforts by the
petitioners in Moore v. United States3 to define the word incomes within
the Sixteenth Amendment to include only realized income.4 The narrow
definition of income proposed by the Moores would tax only a small subset
of what economists, accountants, and tax lawyers consider to be income. This
limited definition would significantly constrain Congress's taxing power set
out in Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution and reaffirmed in the Sixteenth
Amendment.'
The Sixteenth Amendment provides Congress with the power to lay
and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without
apportionment among the several States.6 Despite this clear statement, some
©2024 Donald P. Tobin & Ellen P. Aprill.
* This article is derived from an Amicus Brief filed by Donald B. Tobin and Ellen P. Aprill in
Moore v. United States, No. 22-800 (argued Dec. 5, 2023). See Brief of Tax Professors Donald B.
Tobin and Ellen P. Aprill as Amici Curiae Supporting Respondent, Moore v. United States, No. 22-
800 (filed Oct. 20, 2023). Special thanks to our wonderful librarians Laura Cadra, Susan McCarty,
Jennifer Chapman, Tanya Thomas, Jenny Rensler, and our research assistant Abigail Hartnett. We
also wish to thank the Maryland Carey Law for financial support for the brief and this article. A
special thanks to Mark Graber, Richard Boldt, and Michael Van Alstine at Maryland Carey Law for
their insight and comments.
1. LEWIS CARROLL, THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS, AND WHAT ALICE FOUND THERE 123
(1897).
2. Id. at 124.
3. Moore v. United States, No. 22-800 (argued Dec. 5, 2024).
4. Brief for Petitioners at 1, Moore v. United States, No. 22-800 (filed Aug. 30, 2023).
5. U.S. CONST. art. I, § 8; U.S. CONST. amend. XVI.
6. U.S. CONST. amend. XVI (emphasis added).
1](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/endnot84&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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