Harper v. Virginia Dept. of Taxation, 509 U.S. 86, 3 (1993)

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102

HARPER v. VIRGINIA DEPT. OF TAXATION

Scalia, J., concurring

prior to its payment, or by allowing taxpayers to withhold payment and then interpose their objections as defenses in a tax enforcement proceeding." McKesson, 496 U. S., at 36- 37. Because this issue has not been properly presented, we leave to Virginia courts this question of state law and the performance of other tasks pertaining to the crafting of any appropriate remedy. Virginia "is free to choose which form of relief it will provide, so long as that relief satisfies the minimum federal requirements we have outlined." Id., at 51-52. State law may provide relief beyond the demands of federal due process, id., at 52, n. 36, but under no circumstances may it confine petitioners to a lesser remedy, see id., at 44-51.

IV

We reverse the judgment of the Supreme Court of Virginia, and we remand the case for further proceedings not inconsistent with this opinion.

So ordered.

Justice Scalia, concurring.

I am surprised to see an appeal to stare decisis in today's dissent. In Teague v. Lane, 489 U. S. 288 (1989), Justice O'Connor wrote for a plurality that openly rejected settled precedent controlling the scope of retroactivity on collateral review. "This retroactivity determination," the opinion said, "would normally entail application of the Linkletter [v. Walker, 381 U. S. 618 (1965),] standard, but we believe that our approach to retroactivity for cases on collateral review requires modification." Id., at 301. The dissent in Teague was a sort of anticipatory echo of today's dissent, criticizing the plurality for displaying "infidelity to the doctrine of stare decisis," id., at 331 (Brennan, J., dissenting), for "upset[ting] . . . our time-honored precedents," id., at 333, for "repudiating our familiar approach without regard for the doctrine of stare decisis," id., at 345, and for failing "so much as [to] mention stare decisis," id., at 333.

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