South Dakota v. Dole - Impact

The issue which originally brought about the legal action in South Dakota v. Dole would become a moot one. By 1998, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, an agency of the federal government, reported at its Website that "Age 21 `drinking laws' remain in all states and continue to save lives (an estimated 846 in 1996 alone)." The larger concerns, however, have not gone away. South Dakota v. Dole was mentioned several times in testimony before Congress in the mid- to late 1990s as the executive branch considered guidelines for federal policy with regard to tobacco--specifically, a "tobacco settlement" in which the federal government would receive vast sums of money as a payoff from cigarette manufacturers for the health problems caused by tobacco. Also under consideration before Congress at the close of the century were a variety of proposals regarding changes to tax laws. Among the benefits suggested for a flat tax or a national sales tax were limits on spending coercion. Much of the present tax law, advocates of such proposals suggested, were made to encourage certain behaviors and discourage others. A simple tax, they indicated, would prevent governmental attempts at behavior modification.