From what I can tell with a quick reading, it is not. The opinion states that the fee is a tax and not a penalty and based on that ruling then further rules that the tax oversteps Congress’s delegated authority.

The whole penalty thing seems weird because obviously it’s not a penalty, so I don’t know if the president’s lawyers argued a dumb point and lost or if I’m missing some legal nuance here.

Regardless, the opinion is based on the ruling that the fee amounts to a tax, not that fees must be justified.

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TimorousBestie an hour ago | parent [-]

Page 18 and ff.

https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.mad.293...

> I don’t know if the president’s lawyers argued a dumb point and lost

They argued several dumb points, you’ll have to narrow it down.

	▲	dpark an hour ago \| parent [-]
		I don’t understand what you’re getting at. Page 18 is the tax vs penalty discussion I referred to. > They argued several dumb points, you’ll have to narrow it down. Arguing that the fee is a “penalty” in this case seems pointlessly dumb. Seems like they should have argued the fee a “fee”.