Cite as: 535 U. S. 274 (2002)
Thomas, J., dissenting
III
Finally, while the majority characterizes Michigan's view that the tenancy by the entirety property does not belong to the individual spouses as a "state law fiction," ante, at 276, our precedents, including Drye, 528 U. S., at 58-60, hold that state, not federal, law defines property interests. Ownership by "the marriage" is admittedly a fiction of sorts, but so is a partnership or corporation. There is no basis for ignoring this fiction so long as federal law does not define property, particularly since the tenancy by the entirety property remains subject to lien for the tax liability of both tenants.
Nor do I accept the Court's unsupported assumption that its holding today is necessary because a contrary result would "facilitat[e] abuse of the federal tax system." Ante, at 285. The Government created this straw man, Brief for United States 30-32, suggesting that the property transfer from the tenancy by the entirety to respondent was somehow improper, see id., at 30-31, n. 20 (characterizing scope of "[t]he tax avoidance scheme sanctioned by the court of appeals in this case"), even though it chose not to appeal the lower court's contrary assessment. But the longstanding consensus in the lower courts that tenancy by the entirety property is not subject to lien for the tax liability of one spouse, combined with the Government's failure to adduce any evidence that this has led to wholesale tax fraud by married individuals, suggests that the Court's policy rationale for its holding is simply unsound.
Just as I am unwilling to overturn this Court's longstanding precedent that States define and create property rights and forms of ownership, Aquilino, 363 U. S., at 513, n. 3, I am equally unwilling to redefine or dismiss as fictional forms of property ownership that the State has recognized in favor of an amorphous federal common-law definition of property. I respectfully dissent.
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