WILLIAMS v. CITY OF PHILADELPHIA

Nos. 2 & 3 EAP 2018.

188 A.3d 421 (2018)

Lora Jean WILLIAMS; Gregory J. Smith; CVP Management, Inc. d/b/a or t/a City View Pizza; John's Roast Pork, Inc. f/k/a John's Roast Pork; Metro Beverage of Philadelphia, Inc. d/b/a or t/a Metro Beverage; Day's Beverages, Inc. d/b/a or t/a Day's Beverages; American Beverage Association; Pennsylvania Beverage Association; Philadelphia Beverage Association; and Pennsylvania Food Merchants Association, Appellants v. CITY OF PHILADELPHIA and Frank Breslin, in his Official Capacity as Commissioner of the Philadelphia Department of Revenue, Appellees

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.

Decided: July 18, 2018.


Attorney(s) appearing for the Case

Charles Lyman Becker, Esq. , Tracie L. Palmer, Esq. , Shanin Specter, Esq. , David Collin Williams, Esq. , Kline & Specter, P.C., Allyson N. Ho, Esq. , Michael E. Kenneally, Esq. , John P. Lavelle Jr., Esq. , Marc J. Sonnenfeld, Esq. , Morgan, Lewis, & Bockius, L.L.P., for Appellants.

Scott B. Cooper, Esq. , Schmidt Kramer, P.C., for Sen. Anthony Wms., Rep. Angel Cruz, & 32 other Indiv. Pa. Sens. and Mbs. of the Pa. Hs. of Reps., Appellant Amicus Curiae.

Thomas Herman Kohn, Esq. , Markowitz & Richman, for Teamsters Local Union 830, Appellant Amicus Curiae, Pennsylvania Conference of Teamsters, Appellant Amicus Curiae.

Kevin James McKeon, Esq. , Whitney Elizabeth Snyder, Esq. , Hawke McKeon & Sniscak, L.L.P., for National Federation of Independent Business Small Business Legal Center, Appellant Amicus Curiae, Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry, Appellant Amicus Curiae, Pennsylvania Restaurant and Lodging Association, Appellant Amicus Curiae, Pennsylvania Retailers Association, Appellant Amicus Curiae, National Association of Theatre Owners, Appellant Amicus Curiae, Tri-State Automatic Merchandising Council, Appellant Amicus Curiae.

Mark Alan Aronchick, Esq. , Andrew Martin Erdlen, Esq. , John Stephen Stapleton, Esq. Hangley Aronchick Segal Pudlin & Schiller, Marcel S. Pratt, Esq. , City of Philadelphia Law Department, Dimitrios Mavroudis, Esq. , Matthew Stephan Olesh, Esq. , Kenneth Israel Trujillo, Esq. , for Appellees.

Matthew P. Faranda-Diedrich, Esq. , Jessica Lynne Itzkowitz, Esq. , Royer Cooper Cohen Braunfeld LLC, Sabrina Adler, Esq. , Deborah Barron, Esq. , Seth E. Mermin, Esq. , Benjamin Winig, Esq. , for ChangeLab Solutions, Appellee Amicus Curiae, Children's Defense Fund, Appellee Amicus Curiae, Pennsylvania Association for the Education of Young Children, Appellee Amicus Curiae, Highscope Educational Research, Appellee Amicus Curiae, Pennsylvania Child Care Association, Appellee Amicus Curiae.

Lee Applebaum, Esq. , Diane Bernoff Sher, Esq. , Fineman Krekstein & Harris, P.C., Jacqueline Danielle DiRubbo, Esq. , for The Sustainable Business Network of Greater Philadelphia, Appellee Amicus Curiae.

Daniel Berger, Esq. , Lawrence Jay Lederer, Esq. , Neil Kailash Makhija, Esq. , Sarah Rebecca Schalman-Bergen, Esq. , Berger & Montague, P.C., Lowell Lee Thomas, Esq. , Philadelphia Housing Development Corporation, for African-American Chamber of Commerce of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware, Appellee Amicus Curiae.

Michael J. Quirk, Esq. , Berezofsky Law Group LLC, Rachel S. Bloomekatz, Esq. , for American Heart Association, Appellee Amicus Curiae, Pennsylvania Medical Society, Appellee Amicus Curiae, American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, Appellee Amicus Curiae, Food Trust, Appellee Amicus Curiae, Healthy Food America, Appellee Amicus Curiae, Momsrising.org, Appellee Amicus Curiae, National Alliance For Hispanic Health, Appellee Amicus Curiae, National Association of Chronic Disease Directors, Appellee Amicus Curiae, National Association of Local Boards of Health, Appellee Amicus Curiae, Notah Begay III Foundation, Appellee Amicus Curiae, Public Health Law Center, Appellee Amicus Curiae, American Medical Association, Appellee Amicus Curiae, National Association of County and City Health Officials, Appellee Amicus Curiae, Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals, Appellee Amicus Curiae, Philadelphia County Medical Society, Appellee Amicus Curiae, Physicians for Social Responsibility Philadelphia, Appellee Amicus Curiae.

Michael J. Boni, Esq. , John Elliott Sindoni, Esq. , Boni, Zack & Snyder LLC, for Philadelphia Opportunities Industrialization Center, Inc., Appellee Amicus Curiae, City of Berkeley, Appellee Amicus Curiae.

Farimah F. Brown, Esq. , Jessica E. Mar, Esq. , for City of Berkeley, Appellee Amicus Curiae.

Rigel Caitlin Farr, Esq. , William J. Leonard, Esq. , for Obermayer Rebmann Maxwell & Hippel LLP, International Municipal Lawyers Association, Appellee Amicus Curiae.

Rachel Kathleen Gallegos, Esq. , Stephen G. Harvey, Esq. , Steve Harvey Law LLC, for Public Citizens for Children and Youth, Philadelphia, Appellee Amicus Curiae, Ceiba, Inc., Philadelphia, Appellee Amicus Curiae, Delaware Valley Association For the Education of Young Children, Philadelphia, Appellee Amicus Curiae, Public Health Management Corporation, Philadelphia, Appellee Amicus Curiae.

Michelle S. Payne, Esq. , for Delaware Valley Association for the Education of Young Children, Appellee Amicus Curiae.

Wendy Susanne Smith, Esq. , Morgan & Akins, for Philadelphia Parks Alliance, Appellee Amicus Curiae.

Joshua D. Snyder, Esq. , Boni & Zack, LLC, for City of Berkeley, Appellee Amicus Curiae, City of Berkeley, Appellee Amicus Curiae, Philadelphia Opportunities Industrialization Center, Inc., Appellee Amicus Curiae.

SAYLOR, C.J., BAER, TODD, DONOHUE, DOUGHERTY, WECHT, MUNDY, JJ.


OPINION

In this limited appeal by allowance, we address a claim that the Philadelphia City Council violated an express statutory limitation on taxing power delegated to it by the Pennsylvania General Assembly, when the council created what is colloquially referred to as the City's soda or beverage tax.

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