Columbus, OH – On Monday, The Buckeye Institute prevailed in another federal case protecting taxpayers from the Biden administration’s tax mandate included in the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA).

In West Virginia v. Yellen, the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama Western Division agreed with the arguments presented by The Buckeye Institute in ruling that the tax mandate in ARPA was impermissibly ambiguous and thus exceeded Congress’s constitutional authority to restrict how states spend federal grant money. The court further granted a permanent injunction preventing the Department of the Treasury from enforcing the tax mandate restrictions on states.

“The decision in West Virginia v. Yellen is another victory for taxpayers and the uniquely American principle of federalism. President Biden’s attempt to dictate tax policy to the states would be laughable if it wasn’t such a dangerous and unconstitutional overreach of federal government power,” said Robert Alt, president and chief executive officer of The Buckeye Institute. “As in Ohio v. Yellen, yet another court has rightly recognized that the tax mandate in ARPA is fundamentally unclear, ambiguous, and therefore unenforceable.” 

In Ohio v. Yellen, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio previously also agreed with the two briefs (here and here) The Buckeye Institute filed, and—accordingly—that court further blocked the tax mandate that prohibited states accepting federal COVID relief funds from enacting tax cuts.

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