The Supreme Court case seeking to shut down wealth taxes before they even exist

The Supreme Court will soon hear a lawsuit that seeks to kill a leading proposal to reduce wealth inequality in the United States, even before that proposal becomes reality.

During her 2020 presidential campaign, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) proposed a 2 percent wealth tax on Americans worth over $50 million. The idea was that, rather than merely taxing very wealthy people’s income and leaving their accumulated capital intact, the new tax would gradually chip away at massive fortunes and start to bring wealth inequality under control.

Warren, of course, did not become president. And congressional Republicans would endorse appointing Lucifer to lead the Treasury Department before they would allow such a tax to become law. So the idea of a wealth tax remains a pipe dream — shared by many in the Democratic Party, but with no chance of becoming law anytime soon.