The
Court further stated in rejecting the claim that the income tax is laid as a direct tax:
it clearly results that the proposition and the contentions under it, if acceded to, would cause one provision of the Constitution to
destroy
another; that is, they would result in bringing the provisions of the Amendment exempting a direct tax from apportionment into irreconcilable conflict with the general requirement that all direct taxes be apportioned. [Brushaber v.
Union Pac. R.R., 240 U.S. 1, 12]