Paul Caron writes that a tanning salon lawyer has questioned the constitutionality of the tax on tanning services included in the recently passed healthcare bill:
I [have] a question about the intersection of taxation and civil rights law. It strikes me that the health care bill which requires that indoor tanning salons charge customers a 10% tax beginning in July will necessarily only impact tanning salon customers.
I have never been to a tanning salon, but since their purpose is to turn light skin darker, I can only assume that the overwhelming majority, if not totality, of customers are white.
Adarand¹ applies to spending decisions like the Section 8(a) program, but what about taxing decisions?
Interesting point, don’t you think?
How do you suppose the self-appointed arbiters of all things diverse, equal and fair would have reacted to a tax on one of these activities:
- hip hop music
- chop sticks
- black beans and rice
- yarmulkes
- tampons
- burkas
The decibel levels of their screams would have exceeded those at a Metallica concert.
So please, leave the pigmentally challenged among us alone. It’s bad enough we have to go through life paler than Johnny Winter’s ghost, we don’t need a surtax on top of it.
Footnotes:
¹ Adarand Constructors, Inc. v. Peña, 515 U.S. 200 (1995), is a Supreme Court case holding that racial classifications made by any governmental entity are to be analyzed by a reviewing court under a standard of “strict scrutiny,” the highest level review. Thus, all such racial classifications will be found constitutional only if they are narrowly tailored to further a compelling governmental interest.
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1 IRS Issues Tanning Tax Regulations // Jun 13, 2010 at 11:48 am
[...] Tanning Tax? How About a Tax on Hip Hop Music? [...]
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