Case Citator › Madden v. Kentucky ex rel. Commissioner

Madden v. Kentucky ex rel. Commissioner

Is it still good law? What later courts have actually done to this case.

Questioned by some courts
Court
Supreme Court of the United States
Citation
309 U.S. 83
Decided
Confirmed treatments
1
Flagged citations read
46 of 46
Citing cases (total)
46
Treatment dates
1994
Questioned by some courts
At least one reviewed court has questioned this case’s reasoning or continued validity. No reviewed court has overruled it. Madden v. Kentucky ex rel. Commissioner has one confirmed question about its formulation, listed below, after all 46 flagged citations were read. A Connecticut trial court chose a newer Supreme Court formulation for reviewing tax classifications while acknowledging that Madden's deferential rule remains viable.
More on how this was screened

Other courts continued to apply Madden. Manufacturers Hanover Trust Co. v. United States addressed a gender-based classification, which Madden had not decided.

Every treatment on this page is written from the citing opinion itself, with a verbatim quote, never copied from a commercial citator. A citation flagged by our screen but not shown here was read and found not to weaken this case.

46 later cases cite Madden v. Kentucky ex rel. Commissioner; 46 of those citations sat close to treatment language and were flagged for reading, and all of them have been read. Citations that did not sit near treatment language were not flagged and were not read one by one, so a court that weakened this case without using any of that language would not appear here.

Relying on Madden v. Kentucky ex rel. Commissioner?

This page shows what later courts did to it. Ask about your specific facts and see whether it still carries your argument, with citations you can check.

Treatments

Questioned

  • The Connecticut Superior Court questioned Madden's formulation of tax equal protection review while acknowledging that its deferential rule remained viable.

    D.A. Pincus Co., Inc. v. Meehan · Connecticut Superior Court (unpublished) · filed

    Madden, in comparison, retains considerable viability, but, at least to some extent, it is a product of its era as well. In recent years, the Supreme Court has articulated an equal protection approach to tax legislation that, while highly deferential, is on balance somewhat less overtly hostile to equal protection challenges than Madden. ... This standard, which focuses, with appropriate deference, on whether "the relationship of the classification to its goal is . . . so attenuated as to render the distinction arbitrary or irrational," is the governing standard in this case.
    Read the full opinion on CourtListener →

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