CRS via LC – The Federal Taxing Power: A Primer, September 28, 2020:The Taxing and Spending Clause of the U.S. Constitution provides Congress with the power to tax. The U.S. Supreme Court has interpreted Congress’s power to tax broadly, except for a few cases decided in the 1920s and 1930s, in which the Court invalidated taxes that were functionally regulatory penalties on the ground that they exceeded Congress’s legislative authority. But while the Taxing and Spending Clause grants Congress broad authority to lay and collect taxes, the Constitution also contains clauses that expressly circumscribe the taxing power…”