Tax Injunction Act – Jurisdiction

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7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: A.F. Moore & Associates, Inc., et al. v. Maria Pappas, Cook County Treasury, et al.

Case No.: 19-1971; 19-1979

Officials: FLAUM, HAMILTON, and BARRETT, Circuit Judges.

Focus: Tax Injunction Act – Jurisdiction

The Equal Protection Clause entitles owners of similarly situated property to roughly equal tax treatment. Allegheny Pittsburgh Coal Co. v. Cty. Comm’n, 488 U.S. 336, 345–46 (1989). A group of taxpayers asserts that the tax assessor for Cook County violated that guarantee by assessing their properties at the rates mandated by local ordinance while cutting a break to other owners of similarly situated property. The taxpayers pursued a refund in Illinois court, where they remain tied up in litigation after more than a decade. Frustrated, they turned to federal court for relief, arguing that Illinois’s procedural rules for challenging property taxes prevent them from proving their federal constitutional claims in state court. The district court disagreed and held that the Tax Injunction Act, 28 U.S.C. § 1341, barred their federal suit. The Act strips federal district courts of jurisdiction over challenges to state and local taxes as long as the taxpayer has an adequate forum in state court to raise all constitutional claims. This appeal concerns whether Illinois courts offer a sufficient forum. The issue is made simpler by the County’s concession that Illinois’s tax-objection procedures do not allow the taxpayers to raise their constitutional claims in state court. We are left to conclude that this is the rare case in which taxpayers lack an adequate state-court remedy. The Tax Injunction Act therefore does not bar the taxpayers’ federal suit, so we reverse the district court’s dismissal.

Reversed and remanded

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Derek A Hawkins is trademark corporate counsel for Harley-Davidson. Hawkins oversees the prosecution and maintenance of the Harley-Davidson’s international trademark portfolio in emerging markets.