Richards v. Jefferson County, 517 U.S. 793, 11 (1996)

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Cite as: 517 U. S. 793 (1996)

Opinion of the Court

action renders the usual constitutional protections inapplicable. They contend that invalidation of the occupation tax would have disastrous consequences on the county, which has made substantial commitments of tax revenues based on its understanding that Bedingfield determined the constitutionality of the tax. Respondents argue that in cases raising a public issue of this kind, the people may properly be regarded as the real party in interest and thus that petitioners received all the process they were due in the Bedingfield action.

Our answer requires us to distinguish between two types of actions brought by taxpayers. In one category are cases in which the taxpayer is using that status to entitle him to complain about an alleged misuse of public funds, see, e. g., Massachusetts v. Mellon, 262 U. S. 447, 486-489 (1923), or about other public action that has only an indirect impact on his interests, e. g., Stromberg v. Board of Ed. of Bratenahl, 64 Ohio St. 2d 98, 413 N. E. 2d 1184 (1980), Tallassee v. State ex rel. Brunson, 206 Ala. 169, 89 So. 514 (1921). As to this category of cases, we may assume that the States have wide latitude to establish procedures not only to limit the number of judicial proceedings that may be entertained but also to determine whether to accord a taxpayer any standing at all.

Because the guarantee of due process is not a mere form, however, there obviously exists another category of taxpayer cases in which the State may not deprive individual litigants of their own day in court. By virtue of presenting a federal constitutional challenge to a State's attempt to levy personal funds, petitioners clearly bring an action of this latter type. Cf. ibid. (distinguishing between "public" and "private" actions). Indeed, we have previously struck down as a violation of due process a state court's decision denying an individual taxpayer any practicable opportunity to contest a tax on federal constitutional grounds. See Brinkerhoff-Faris Trust & Sav. Co. v. Hill, 281 U. S. 673 (1930). There, we explained:

803

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