Millard v. Roberts

Citations

• 202 U.S. 429
• 26 S. Ct. 674
• 50 L. Ed. 1090
• 1906 U.S. LEXIS 1544

Syllabus

<p>Revenue bills, within the meaning of the constitutional provision that they must originate in the House of Representatives and not in the Senate are those that levy taxes in the strict sense'of the word and are not bills for other purposes which may incidentally create revenue.</p> <p>An act of Congress appropriating money to be paid to railway companies to carry out a scheme of public improvements' in the District of Columbia,. and which also requires those companies to eliminate grade crossings and erect a union station, and recognizes and provides for the surrender of existing rights, is an act appropriating money for governmental purposes and not for the private use exclusively of those companies.</p> <p>The acts of Congress of February 12, 1901, 31 Stat. 767, 774, and of February 28, 1903, 32 Stat. 909, for eliminating grade crossings of railways and erection of a union station in the District of Columbia and providing for part of the cost thereof by appropriations to be levied and assessed on property in the District other than that of the United States are not unconstitutional either because as bills for raising revenue they should have originated in the House of Representatives and not in the Senate, or because they appropriate moneys to be paid to the railway companies for their exclusive use; and assuming but not deciding that he can' raise th'e question by suit, a taxpayer of the District is not oppressed or deprived of his property without due process of law by reason of the taxes imposed under said statutes.</p>