Supreme Court Punt in Tax Fine Case Leaves Uncertainty in Wake

The US Supreme Court left lower courts with a mess to sort out in declining to weigh in on whether constitutional protections against excessive fines extend to civil tax penalties.

The court refused on Monday to hear a Massachusetts woman’s challenge to a $2.17 million fine she received for failing to report a foreign bank account. The denial leaves in place an appellate court decision Justice Neil Gorsuch said is difficult to square with the original understanding of the Eighth Amendment. He wanted the court to take up the case.

The April decision by the US Court of Appeals for ...