Moore v. United States: Are Appreciated Assets Income?

Pioneer Public Interest Law Center and the Competitive Enterprise Institute are pleased to invite you to join us for Moore v. United States: Are Appreciated Assets Income? 

For most of the nation’s history, a federal income tax was deemed unconstitutional. But the ratification of the 16th Amendment in 1913 erased that constraint with a single sentence: “The Congress shall have the power to lay and collect taxes on incomes from whatever source derived without apportionment among the several states and without regard to any census or enumeration.” Since 1913, taxable income has been narrowly understood to include such things as money earned from a paycheck or profit made from the sale of an asset. But the United States government is challenging that interpretation of income. On December 5, 2023, the Competitive Enterprise Institute and BakerHostetler brought their case, Moore v. United States, to the Supreme Court. 

Hon. Frank J. Bailey, president of the Pioneer Public Interest Law Center, will host Kent Lassman, president and CEO of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, and Thomas Berry, research fellow in the Cato Institute’s Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies and editor in chief of the Cato Supreme Court Review, for a discussion on the implications of the Moore ruling. Guests will hear exclusive insights from our panel in an intimate setting and have the opportunity to engage in Q&A. 

When: Tuesday, April 30, 2024 
5:30 pm – 7:30 pm In-Person Reception 
6:00 pm – 7:00 pm Livestream Discussion

Where: Hemenway & Barnes, 75 State Street, Boston, MA 02109 // Zoom 

Register: https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/ev/reg/k5cjgsx/lp/661d0c28-8773-446c-92f6-0adb2a216dea

Hon. Frank J. Bailey is the president of the Pioneer Public Interest Law Center. Formerly a United States bankruptcy judge for the District of Massachusetts, Bailey was appointed on January 30, 2009 and served as chief judge from 2010 to 2014. He has also served as an appellate judge on the First Circuit Bankruptcy Appellate Panel. He received his undergraduate degree from Georgetown University, School of Foreign Service in 1977 with his BSFS in economics and his JD from Suffolk University in 1980. Judge Bailey retired from judicial service on June 1, 2022. 

Thomas A. Berry is a research fellow in the Cato Institute’s Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies and editor in chief of the Cato Supreme Court Review. Prior to working at Cato, he was an attorney at Pacific Legal Foundation and clerked for Judge E. Grady Jolly of the Fifth Circuit. He was a co-author of two amicus curiae briefs supporting the petitioners in Moore v. United States, at both the certiorari and merits stage. 

Kent Lassman is the president and CEO of the feisty and principled Competitive Enterprise Institute. Reforming broken regulatory institutions and removing the unnecessary burdens they produce has taken him across America, to more than a dozen countries, and deep into the dysfunction of the federal government. An optimist by nature, he is a Virginian by choice and is outdoors at every opportunity.