Scholarship@WashULaw

Document Type

Article

Language

English (en)

Publication Date

2026

Publication Title

Washington University Law Review

Abstract

This paper introduces the Washington University Law Review’s 2026 symposium issue on “Taxing, Spending, and the Constitution.” We situate the symposium’s ten papers within three interconnected developments in public finance law: the Supreme Court’s recent decision on the Sixteenth Amendment in Moore v. United States; the Trump Administration’s assertions of executive control over appropriated funds; and the use of emergency and trade statutes to justify sweeping tariff authority.

We also step back to ask why constitutional issues in public finance—long treated as a technical backwater—have become such a central site of doctrinal and political conflict. We offer several explanations beyond the obvious role of the Trump Administration itself: the Constitution’s unusually extensive textual commitments on money and taxation; a rich post-ratification history of practice that has taken on new salience amid the Supreme Court’s turn toward history-and-tradition analysis; and the broader trends of congressional gridlock and skepticism of the administrative state that (we contend) have pushed public finance disputes onto constitutional terrain.

Keywords

Constitution, Public Finance, Supreme Court, Taxation, SIxteenth Amendment, Moore v. United States, Tariff Law

Publication Citation

Conor Clarke & Eric Kubo, Foreword: The Constitution and Public Finance—Why Now and Why Ever?, 103 Wash. U. L. Rev. 1707 (2026)

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