Today in Supreme Court History: November 19

Goudy v. Meath, 203 U.S. 146 (decided November 19, 1906): Congress may exempt land held by Native Americans from taxation before they sell it but didn’t do so in this case; Congress had declared in 1887 that plaintiff’s tribe were now citizens so he had to pay taxes from that point forward

United States v. Cambridge Loan & Building Co., 278 U.S. 55 (decided November 19, 1928): government was estopped from collecting back taxes even though taxpayer “building and loan association” was making too much money on the outside to qualify for exemption designed for nonprofits

Francisco v. Gathright, 419 U.S. 59 (decided November 19, 1974): habeas petitioner didn’t have to resubmit to state court his claim that the state statute he had been arrested under was unconstitutional; his state appeals had been exhausted but the state supreme court then issued a decision in another case agreeing that the statute was unconstitutional (this was Sharp v. Commonwealth, 1972, where the Virginia Supreme Court held that intent to distribute drugs cannot be inferred solely from the quantity possessed) (I think it can very well be inferred, unless the possessor was the all-consuming Hunter S. Thompson)