To: CLS Participants (Web only; e-mail alert)

From: Nicholas Johnson

Re: CLS/Reading Assignments for March 29, 2000

Note: The following material, as always, will be the subject of a brief quiz. Page numbers are indicated to give a rough sense of length of material and are taken from my printed copies.

We may add something to this assignment before Wednesday evening, but what now follows is all that will be covered on the quiz. As you'll see it's mostly journalism or equivalent (rather than "law"), and therefore a relatively quick read. You'll also quickly discover the reasons why: There's not yet a lot of law out there.

But your goal, and assignment, is to come to class Wednesday evening having thought through the issues and your own proposal/s for balancing the interests at stake.

Begin with Dynamic-Host's "E-Commerce Common Questions." (If for any reason you have trouble with that link try Google's cashed version.) This will give you a quick overview about e-commerce generally. (It's a paragraph or so regarding each of 10 questions, so much less reading than the 11 nearly blank pages it takes to print it out suggest.)

Then take a look at the only case I've selected so far: Quill Corp. v. North Dakota, 504 U.S. 298 (1992). Note that although this link takes you to Justice Stevens' majority opinion, there are also two additional opinions by Justices White and Scalia that you get by clicking on links from the majority opinion main page. (On my printer the majority's is 7 pages plus some endnotes, Scalia's is one page, White's is four plus notes.) This will give you a sense of what the Supreme Court is struggling with on the related and applicable issues.

Following Quill read a student paper from CLS1999, Brad Graham's "State Sales and Use Taxation of Intangible Goods and Services Purchased via the Internet." (My copy is 12 pages plus endnotes.) It's kind of cool being able to assign a former student's paper, and besides it will provide you a good overview of the e-commerce tax questions.

Next, read the text of the "Internet Tax Freedom Act." This link takes you to a page of House Member Chris Cox, who played the major role in slipping his bill into the Omnibus Consolidated Appropriations Act of 1998 as Title XI. (Click on "ITFA Text and Summary." I selected the ".pdf" format which printed out as about 20 pages, double-spaced, with extremely wide margins.) Why his page? Because you will also find there his "Plain English" Summary, Section-by-Section Analysis and Answers to Frequently Asked Questions -- should you be interested -- along with links to other of his "Pro-Internet Efforts" and a useful piece on "Web Commerce." Cox is an Orange County (California) Republican and member of the House leadership. If you are curious enough about him to visit more of his Web pages you will discover that he also opposes what he calls the "love tax."

Finally, go to the Report of the California Electronic Commerce Advisory Council, "'If I'm so empowered, why do I need you?': Defining Government's Role in Internet Electronic Commerce." Once there, click on and read the "Introduction," and "Taxes." (The former prints out to three pages; the latter 11 pages of text plus endnotes.)