United States v. Norton

In United States v. Norton, 91 U.S. 566 (1875), the U.S. Supreme Court upheld, against a challenge under the Origination Clause, a tax to fund a postal money order system.

The Court followed the view of Justice Story on the topic:

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The construction of this limitation is practically well settled by the uniform action of Congress. According to that construction, it "has been confined to bills to levy taxes in the strict sense of the words, and has not been understood to extend to bills for other purposes which incidentally create revenue." Story on the Const., sect. 880. "Bills for raising revenue" when enacted into laws, become revenue laws. Congress was a constitutional body sitting under the Constitution. It was, of course, familiar with the phrase "bills for raising revenue," as used in that instrument, and the construction which had been given to it.

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