Cite as: 523 U. S. 517 (1998)
Opinion of the Court
Moore, 423 U. S. 77 (1975), not only were there earlier versions of the statute,9 but "its roots reach back even further into the English common law," id., at 80. The sovereign prerogative that was exercised by the English Crown and by many of the States as "an inherent incident of sovereignty," ibid., applied only to unsecured claims. As Justice Brandeis noted in Marshall v. New York, 254 U. S. 380, 384 (1920), the common-law priority "[did] not obtain over a specific lien created by the debtor before the sovereign undertakes to enforce its right." Moreover, the statute itself does not create a lien in favor of the United States.10 Given this background, respondent argues that the statute should be read as
be first satisfied; and the priority hereby established shall be deemed to extend, as well to cases in which a debtor, not having sufficient property to pay all his debts, shall make a voluntary assignment thereof, or in which the estate and effects of an absconding, concealed, or absent debtor, shall be attached by process of law, as to cases in which an act of legal bankruptcy shall be committed." Compare § 3466 of the Revised Statutes with the present statute quoted in n. 1, supra.
It has long been settled that the federal priority covers the Govern-ment's claims for unpaid taxes. Price v. United States, 269 U. S. 492, 499- 502 (1926); Massachusetts v. United States, 333 U. S. 611, 625-626, and n. 24 (1948).
9 "The earliest priority statute was enacted in the Act of July 31, 1789, 1 Stat. 29, which dealt with bonds posted by importers in lieu of payment of duties for release of imported goods. It provided that the 'debt due to the United States' for such duties shall be discharged first 'in all cases of insolvency, or where any estate in the hands of executors or administrators shall be insufficient to pay all the debts due from the deceased . . . .' § 21, 1 Stat. 42. A 1792 enactment broadened the Act's coverage by providing that the language 'cases of insolvency' should be taken to include cases in which a debtor makes a voluntary assignment for the benefit of creditors, and the other situations that § 3466, 31 U. S. C. § 191, now covers. 1 Stat. 263." United States v. Moore, 423 U. S., at 81.
10 "In construing the statutes on this subject, it has been stated by the court, on great deliberation, that the priority to which the United States are entitled, does not partake of the character of a lien on the property of public debtors. This distinction is always to be recollected." United States v. Hooe, 3 Cranch 73, 90 (1805).
525
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