The 16th Amendment was passed in response to SCOTUS's ruling in Pollock. Pollock held that a tax on income derived from property (i.e., rental income) was effectively a property tax, and therefore a direct tax, requiring apportionment to the states. This is why the 16th Amendment says "power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived" (emphasis added). There was prior precedent that income taxes per se were constitutional (Springer v US, per Wikipedia). Furthermore, Pollock's reasoning itself is pretty close to bunk--I wouldn't expect SCOTUS to uphold it even without the 16th Amendment.
Oh god, rereading the article, it gets worse:
> Can a law declared unconstitutional in 1895 be constitutional in 1913 and beyond?
Yes, if there is a change in the constitution explicitly done so as to render it constitutional. But it's also not like SCOTUS itself hasn't changed its mind on what's constitutional and unconstitutional in the past (see Commerce Clause jurisprudence for an example of where unconstitutional interpretations have become constitutional).
The 16th Amendment was passed in response to SCOTUS's ruling in Pollock. Pollock held that a tax on income derived from property (i.e., rental income) was effectively a property tax, and therefore a direct tax, requiring apportionment to the states. This is why the 16th Amendment says "power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived" (emphasis added). There was prior precedent that income taxes per se were constitutional (Springer v US, per Wikipedia). Furthermore, Pollock's reasoning itself is pretty close to bunk--I wouldn't expect SCOTUS to uphold it even without the 16th Amendment.
Oh god, rereading the article, it gets worse:
> Can a law declared unconstitutional in 1895 be constitutional in 1913 and beyond?
Yes, if there is a change in the constitution explicitly done so as to render it constitutional. But it's also not like SCOTUS itself hasn't changed its mind on what's constitutional and unconstitutional in the past (see Commerce Clause jurisprudence for an example of where unconstitutional interpretations have become constitutional).