Newsweek, Inc. v. Florida Department of Revenue et al. (522 U.S. 442)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided February 23, 1998 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 522 U.S. 442 · 118 S. Ct. 904
- Decided
- February 23, 1998
- Term
- October Term 1997
- Vote
- 9–0
- Issue area
- Economic Activity
- Disposition
- Vacated and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
Per Curiam. Effective January 1, 1988, Florida exempted newspapers, but not magazines, from its sales tax. See Fla. Stat. §§ 212.08(7)(w), 212.05(1)(i) (Supp. 1988). In 1990, the Florida Supreme Court found this classification invalid under the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States. See Department of Revenue v. Magazine Publishers of America, Inc., 565 So. 2d 1304 (1990), vacated and remanded, Miami Herald Publishing Co. v. Dept. of Revenue, 499 U. S. 972 (1991), reaff’d, 604 So. 2d 459 (1992). In the wake of this ruling, Newsweek, a magazine, filed a claim for a refund of sales taxes it had paid between 1988 and 1990. See Fla. Stat. § 215.26(1) (Supp. 1998) (“The Comptroller of the state may refund ... any moneys paid into the State Treasury”). When the Department of Revenue denied the refund, Newsweek filed suit, alleging the State’s failure to accord it retroactive relief violated its due process rights under McKesson Corp. v. Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco, Fla. Dept. of Business Regulation, 496 U. S. 18 (1990). The Florida trial court granted summary judgment against Newsweek, and the District Court of Appeal affirmed. Although acknowledging McKesson’s requirement of “meaningful backward-looking relief” when a taxpayer is forced to pay a tax before having an opportunity to establish its uneonstitutionality, the District Court of Appeal…
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