the statute, the
validity of the measure is determined by the power of Congress to
regulate the subject matter. If the regulations are within the
competence of Congress, apart from its power to tax, the exaction is
sustained as an appropriate sanction for making them effective;[268]
otherwise it is invalid.[269] During the Prohibition Era, Congress
levied a heavy tax upon liquor dealers who operated in violation of
State law. In United States _v._ Constantine[270] the Court held that
this tax was unenforceable after the repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment,
since the National Government had no power to impose an additional
penalty for infractions of State law.

The Protective Tariff

The earliest examples of taxes levied with a view to promoting desired
economic objectives in addition to raising revenue were, of course,
import duties. The second statute adopted by the first Congress was a
tariff act which recited that "it is necessary for the support of
government, for the discharge of the debts of the United States, and the
encouragement and protection of manufactures, that duties be laid on
goods, wares and merchandise imported."[271] After being debated for
nearly a century and a half, the constitutionality of protective tariffs
was finally settled by the unanimous decision of the Supreme Court in
Hampton and Company _v._ United States,[272] where Chief Justice Taft
wrote: "The second objection to Sec. 315 is that the declared plan of
Congress, either expressly or by clear implication, formulates its rule
to guide the President and his advisory Tariff Commission as one
directed to a tariff system of protection that will avoid damaging
competition to the country's industries by the importation of goods from
other countries at too low a rate to equalize foreign and domestic
competition in the markets of the United States. It is contended that
the only power of Congress in the levying of customs duties is to create
revenue, and that it is unconstitutional to frame the customs duties
with any other view than that of revenue raising. * * * In this first
Congress sat many members of the Constitutional Convention of 1787. This
Court has repeatedly laid down the principle that a contemporaneous
legislative exposition of the Constitution when the founders of our
Government and framers of our Constitution were actively participating
in public affairs, long acquiesced in, fixes the construction to be
given its provisions. * *