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For immediate release - Monday, June 9, 2003. Contact Bob Brammer - 515-281-6699. |
Comment of Attorney General Miller on U.S. Supreme Court decision June 9:
Attorney General Tom
Miller: Background: The U.S. Supreme Court issued a unanimous 9-0 ruling today upholding
Iowa's law that taxes riverboat and racetrack casinos at differing rates,
reversing a decision by the Iowa Supreme Court issued June 12, 2002. Attorney
General Tom Miller argued the case for the State on April 29, 2003, at
the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. (Click here for more on the Argument.) The Court's ruling Monday said, ". . . the Constitution grants legislators,
not courts, broad authority (within the bounds of rationality) to decide
whom they wish to help with their tax laws. . . . [T]he State's differential
tax rate does not violate the Federal Equal Protection Clause. The Iowa
Supreme Court's judgment to the contrary is reversed, and the case is
remanded for further proceedings not inconsistent with this opinion."
(Click here for today's
Supreme Court decision.) # #
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"We are elated with the
Court's ruling. It is a straightforward and strong decision, without dissent,
upholding the constitutionality of the Iowa tax."