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receipts in question in those cases were included in taxable
income under both the 1939 and 1954 Internal Revenue Codes. For
example, in Commissioner v. Glenshaw Glass Co., supra at 432-433:
“We would do violence to the plain meaning of the statute and
restrict a clear legislative attempt to * * * bear upon all
receipts constitutionally taxable were we to say that the
payments in question here are not gross income.” And again, in
General Am. Investors Co. v. Commissioner, supra at 436: “In
accordance with the legislative design to reach all gain
constitutionally taxable unless specifically excluded, we
conclude that the petitioner is liable for the tax and the
judgment is affirmed.”
These words are also “dicta”, as are the words of the old
Supreme Court opinions and other opinions and sources that
petitioners selectively quote out of context. Dicta is a word
that lawyers and judges use to refer to explanations or comments
in a judicial opinion that are not necessary to the holding or
result that is the court's actual decision. But, as explained in
Reich v. Continental Cas. Co., supra at 757, in which the Court
of Appeals applied and followed the dicta in a recent Supreme
Court opinion on another subject:
federal law is for all practical purposes what the
Supreme Court says it is. When the Court's view is
embodied in a holding, the Court's reluctance to
overrule its precedents enables a confident prediction
that that holding is “the law.” When the view is
embodied in a dictum, prediction cannot be made with
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