Covid Aid Curb on States Unconstitutional, 11th Circuit Says (1)

A federal restriction on states’ use of pandemic relief funds to offset state tax cuts is unconstitutional, an appeals court ruled Friday.

A three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit agreed with more than a dozen suing states that the offset provision violated the US Constitution’s spending clause, because the states couldn’t ascertain the condition imposed on the funds. The spending clause authorizes Congress to tax, spend, and place restrictions on federal funding.

The offset provision was created under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, which allocated $195.3 billion to ...