The Supreme Court tax case that could blow a hole in the federal budget

The docket for the Supreme Court term that began this week includes many vital constitutional issues, including on guns, gerrymandering, regulatory authority and social media. Let’s add to that list a tax case you’ve likely never heard of.
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This summer, the high court agreed to hear Moore v. United States, a case that opens up the possibility that large swaths of the tax code, particularly as applied to trillions of dollars in business and investment income disproportionately earned by the wealthy, could be deemed unconstitutional. At a time of large and growing deficits and significant inequality in the United States, that seems … bad.

So, how did we get here? Let’s begin at the beginning.

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