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A case whereby priorities of various tax liens were established.
The State contended that state liens were given superiority over the federal lien by virtue of state
statutes. The applicable state statute declared, “that taxes shall ‘become a lien upon such real
property’ on specified dates following their assessment and, as construed by petitioners, states that
they shall be a ‘first lien, prior, superior and paramount.’”
The Supreme Court responded quite simply, “We do not stop to inquire whether this construction of
the state statutes is the correct one for we think the argument ignores the effect of a lien for federal
taxes under the supremacy clause of the
Constitution. The establishment of a tax lien by Congress is an exercise of its constitutional power ‘To
lay and collect Taxes’. Article I, 8
of the Constitution. United States v. Snyder, 149 U.S. 210, 13 S.
Ct. 846. And laws of Congress enacted pursuant to the Constitution are by Article
VI of the Constitution declared to be ‘the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State
shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary
notwithstanding.’”
Full text: Michigan v. United
States, 317 U.S. 338 (1943) |