Mays v. Bowers’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

2 federal appellate ·

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 3 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““ ‘All the ordinary and necessary expenses paid or incurred during the taxable year in carrying on any trade or business’ are allowed by § 23(a)(1) (A) as deductions in computing net income. According to tax law terminology (§ 48(d) of the Internal Revenue Code) the performance by petitioner of his judicial office constituted carrying on a ‘trade or business’ within the terms of § 23 of the Internal Revenue Code. He was therefore entitled to deduct from his gross income all the ‘ordinary and necessary expenses’ paid during 1939 in carrying on that ‘trade or business.’ He could, that is, deduct all expenses that related to the discharge of his functions as a judge. But his campaign contributions were not expenses incurred in being a judge but in trying to be a judge for the next ten years. That is as true of the money he spent more immediately for his own re-election as it is of the ‘assessment’ he paid into the party coffers for the success of his party’s ticket. The incongruity of allowing such contributions as expenses incidental to the means of earning income as a judge is underlined by the insistence that payment of the ‘assessment’ levied by the party as a prerequisite to being allowed to be a candidate is deductible as a ‘business’ expense. If such ‘assessments’ for future acquisition of a profitable office are part of the expenses in performing the functions of that office for the taxable year, then why should not the same deduction be allowed for ‘assessment’ against ”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Mays v. Bowers