Columbus, OH – On Tuesday, The Buckeye Institute filed its third amicus brief in Ohio v. Yellen, this time with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. In its brief, The Buckeye Institute urged the court to uphold the decision by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, which agreed with Buckeye’s two previous briefs (here and here) and ruled that the Biden Administration’s tax mandate—included in the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA)—is ambiguous and therefore unenforceable, and that the treasury secretary cannot fix Congress’s error through regulatory action.

“In the tax mandate, the Biden Administration attempted the most sweeping usurpation of state taxing authority in U.S. history,” said Robert Alt, president and chief executive officer of The Buckeye Institute. “As The Buckeye Institute argued and Judge Cole in his opinion agreed, Congress must act ‘clearly’ if it ‘seeks to alter the constitutional design by delegating its powers to agencies;’ and, in the case of the tax mandate, ‘Congress did not do so.’ What is clear, however, is that the federal tax mandate is ambiguous and unenforceable and therefore must be overturned.”

On July 1, 2021, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio blocked the Biden Administration’s tax mandate, which prohibited states that accepted federal COVID-relief funds from enacting tax cuts directly or indirectly. The U.S. Treasury Department filed its appeal after losing in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, and yesterday’s filing by The Buckeye Institute responds to that appeal.

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UPDATE: On November 18, 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled that “Ohio failed to establish a justiciable controversy,” and that “[r]egardless of standing, the controversy is moot.”