United States v. Hatter, 532 U.S. 557, 20 (2001)

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576

UNITED STATES v. HATTER

Opinion of the Court

perhaps it would produce greater equality when applied to other, less typical examples.

Taken together, these four characteristics reveal a law that is special—in its manner of singling out judges for disadvantageous treatment, in its justification as necessary to offset advantages related to constitutionally protected features of the judicial office, and in the degree of permissible legislative discretion that would have to underlie any determination that the legislation has "equalized" rather than gone too far. For these reasons the law before us is very different from the "non-discriminatory" tax that O'Malley upheld. 307 U. S., at 282. Were the Compensation Clause to permit Congress to enact a discriminatory law with these features, it would authorize the Legislature to diminish, or to equalize away, those very characteristics of the Judicial Branch that Article III guarantees—characteristics which, as we have said, see supra, at 568-569, the public needs to secure that judicial independence upon which its rights depend. We consequently conclude that the 1983 Social Security tax law discriminates against the Judicial Branch, in violation of the Compensation Clause.

The Government makes additional arguments in support of reversal. But we find them unconvincing. It suggests that Article III protects judges only against a reduction in stated salary, not against indirect measures that only reduce take-home pay. Brief for United States 28. In O'Malley, however, this Court, when upholding a "non-discriminatory" tax, strongly implied that the Compensation Clause would bar a discriminatory tax. 307 U. S., at 282. The commentators whose work O'Malley cited said so explicitly. See Fell-man, The Diminution of Judicial Salaries, 24 Iowa L. Rev. 89, 99 (1938); see also Comment, 20 Ill. L. Rev. 376, 377 (1925); Corwin, Constitutional Law in 1919-1920, 14 Am. Pol. Sci. Rev. 635, 642 (1920). And in Will, the Court yet more strongly indicated that the Compensation Clause bars indirect efforts to reduce judges' salaries through taxes when

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