Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump · ¶50

Taxes, to be sure, may accomplish regulatory ends. See Sonzinsky, 300 U. S., at 513; Gibbons, 9 Wheat., at 201–202. But it does not follow that the power to regulate something includes the power to tax it as a means of regulation. Congressional practice suggests as much. When Congress addresses both the power to regulate and the power to tax, it does so separately and expressly. See, e. g., 16 U. S. C. §460bbb–9(a) (distinguishing between the power to “tax persons, franchise, or private property” on lands and the power “to regulate the private lands”); 2 U. S. C. § 622(8)(B)(i) (“government-sponsored enterprise” does not have the “power to tax or to regulate interstate commerce”). That is unsurprising, as the “power to regulate commerce” is “entirely distinct from the right to levy taxes.” Gibbons, 9 Wheat., at 201. That Congress did not grant those authorities separately here is strong…

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