Lawsuit: MWAA Toll Increases are Unconstitutional!

UPDATE October 12, 2012: The Federal Circuit issued a decision to transfer the case to the United States Court of Appeals for 4th Circuit. This means we won't actually get a decision in the case for a while. The Federal Circuit decided that MWAA was not a "federal instrumentality", and thus sent the case to the 4th Circuit.

While we would have preferred for the Federal Circuit to prohibit MWAA from collecting DTR tolls and diverting them to the rail project, there is still a possibility of the 4th Circuit doing so. Meanwhile, we should continue to ask Gov. McDonnell and our legislators to take our road back and have MWAA fund Dulles Rail by tolling their Airport Access Road.


UPDATE October 2, 2012: Oral arguments in Corr v. MWAA took place today at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. You can download and listen to the oral arguments here. It is impossible to say how the judges will decide the case, but MWAA's attorneys did not seem to convince the judges that they are not a federal government entity. There is no telling when the judges will issue their decision, but we will keep you up-to-date with the latest in the case.

The case argues two main points:

• Tolls in excess of what's required to operate and maintain the road are a tax.
• The Virginia Constitution does not allow the legislature to delegate taxing authority to a non-elected, unaccountable body like MWAA.

MWAA might think they are above the law and don't have to answer to the United States or Virginia Constitutions, but that is being challenged in the courts. In less than one month, at 10:00am October 2, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit will hear oral arguments in Carr v. MWAA, challenging MWAA's ability to pay for Dulles Rail by stealing from commuters.

The Appellants (toll road users) filed their Opening Brief in March. The Appellees (MWAA) filed their Brief in April, but totally ignored all of the Appellants' arguments. The Reply Brief from the toll road users, filed in May, pointed this out.

What does that mean? There is a solid legal argument, based on recent precedent, that MWAA collection of  tolls from the Dulles Toll Road to pay for Metrorail is unconstitutional, and MWAA has no answer to the argument. This means that the court could forbid the toll increases planned for January, and force MWAA to pay back tolls illegally collected.

As we have said elsewhere, this toll increase is not final yet!

Here is some of the very limited media coverage of the lawsuit:
Metro Wash Airports control of Dulles TR challenged in big law suit - toll/tax distinction at issue April 2011

‘Taxation Without Representation’ Suit Challenges Toll Road Taxes April 2011

Lawsuit Argues MWAA Can't Tax Dulles Toll Road Commuters September 2012