Federal Judge Hesitant to Proceed on Maryland Digital Tax Issues

A federal judge raised concerns Tuesday about whether she should allow tech companies’ challenge to Maryland’s controversial digital-advertising tax to proceed after a state court struck down the tax as unconstitutional.

In October, a state court judge found the Digital Advertising Gross Revenues Tax violates the US Constitution’s commerce clause and the First Amendment, as well as the federal Internet Tax Freedom Act. Maryland’s attorney general has appealed that ruling.

In a hearing Tuesday in a parallel, federal court proceeding, Judge Lydia Kay Griggsby of the US District Court for the District of Maryland asked the state ...