Amendment XVI
577
or reduce the chances of electing a black candidate to office. The Act also
restricts the States in those instances where the drawing of electoral districts simply results in a dilution of black voting strength, whether by accident or design.
f . a m e n d m e n t x v i (1913)
The Congress shall have 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.
In Pollack v. Farmer’s Loan & Trust (1895), the Supreme Court held unconstitutional an Act of Congress establishing an income tax derived from
property. An income tax, said the Court, is a ‘‘direct’’ tax, and Article I,
Section 2, Clause 3 and Article I, Section 9, Clause 4 of the Constitution
specify that direct taxes must be apportioned according to population.
Such apportionment might be possible under a uniform capitation tax,
but not under an income tax based on property.
The Sixteenth Amendment overturned the Pollock case, authorizing
Congress to levy a tax on income, whatever its source, without apportionment. This Amendment strengthens the tax power of Congress, but
necessarily reduces the power of States by reducing their tax base. In
other words, there is less tax revenue available to the States as a result of
this Amendment because there is less to collect after the Federal government has levied its tax. In this respect, the Sixteenth Amendment vitally
affects the institution of federalism.
The Sixteenth Amendment, then, altered the relationships between the
Federal government and the State governments. For Washington now enjoyed means for raising money more efficient than the means most States
possessed. Beginning in the era of Franklin Roosevelt, the Congress found
it expedient to secure cooperation from State legislatures by offering the
States grants of money for purposes approved by the Federal government. Often the State could obtain the ‘‘grant-in-aid’’ by matching the
Federal contribution; sometimes Washington required that the States contribute only a small percentage of the total costs, or perhaps nothing at all.
Thus increasingly, since the Second World War, the Federal government has paid the bills for large public projects and induced or com-