Legal Matters: Direct Marketers Take Colorado to the Supreme Court

The DMA's position is that the TIA, which was enacted by Congress in 1937, was for the limited objective of requiring state taxpayers to follow established state procedures to protest tax assessments or file claims for refund if they claim they don't owe the taxes assessed against them. Forced recourse to state courts to assert federal constitutional objections by nontaxpayers serves no legitimate policy objective and isn't consistent with the original intent of the TIA. Indeed, such a strained interpretation of the TIA would deprive those online merchants most affected by the Colorado law access to the judicial forum in which they have the most confidence that their claims will be judged free from any bias that might result from an elected state judiciary or a predisposition towards local commercial interests.