United States v. Burnison, 339 U.S. 87 (1950)

339 U.S.
87
70 S.Ct. 503
94 L.Ed. 675
UNITED STATES
v.
BURNISON et al. UNITED STATES v. GAYETTY et al.
Nos. 171, 188.
Argued Dec. 13, 1949.
Decided March 13, 1950.
Mr. Melvin Richter, Washington, D.C., for appellant.

Mr. J. Harold Decker, Los Angeles, Cal., for Gayetty and others.
Mr. Justice REED delivered the opinion of the Court.
These appeals involve the power of the California Supreme Court to declare
invalid testamentary dispositions to the United States by two California
residents. The bequest to the United States in No. 171 included only personal
property; in No. 188 the United States was designated to receive both real
property and United States bonds. The situs of all the property is assumed to be
California. After appropriate procedural steps, the California Supreme Court
held void these testamentary gifts and directed that they be distributed to the
statutory heirs of each decedent.1 The two cases were consolidated for
argument below and will be considered here in one opinion.
The California court construed 27 of the California Probate Code 2 to prevent

a California domiciliary from making an unrestricted testamentary gift to the
United States, although such a gift may be made to California, its counties and
municipal corporations.3 The court arrived at this interpretation despite the
contention of the United States that it would raise serious constitutional
questions. The construction of the California Code by the California Supreme
Court is, of course, binding on us. It leaves us, however, with the federal
constitutional questions that the United States urged the California court to
avoid.
In these appeals the United States makes two contentions. It urges that the
California Code, as interpreted, violates the Supremacy Clause of the
Constitution, art. 6, cl. 2, in that it infringes upon the 'inherent sovereign power'
of the United States to receive testamentary gifts. Alternatively it argues that
the Code effects an unconstitutional discrimination against the National
Government, since a testamentary gift may be made by a Californian to
California, but may not be made to the United States.
We have no doubt that the receipt of gifts, testamentary and nontestamentary, is

within the ambit of federal powers. Uninterrupted usage from the foundation of
the Government has sanctioned it. The first question here, therefore, is whether
the power to receive testamentary gifts reaches so far as to forbid a state to deny
a testator the right to will his property to the United States.
To answer this question affirmatively would require us to overrule United

States v. Fox, 94 U.S. 315, 24 L.Ed. 192, decided at the 1876 Term by a
unanimous Court and frequently cited with approval. A devise of New York
realty to the United States had been held void by the Court of Appeals4 under a
New York statute that declared land in New York could be devised only to
natural persons and such corporations as New York had expressly authorized to
take by devise. Although it was not specifically urged that the Supremacy
Clause precludes a state's interference with the power of the United States to
receive testamentary gifts, this point was necessarily involved in the United
States' argument that the New York prohibition violated an essential attribute of
national sovereigntythe right to acquire property by all methods known to the
law. In affirming, this Court held that the power to control devises of property
was in the State, and that therefore a person must 'devise his lands in that State
within the limitations of the statute or he cannot devise them at all.'5
In asking us to overrule the Fox case, the United States contends that since it
has the power to accept testamentary gifts, the Supremacy Clause bars a state
from stopping this stream of federal revenue at its source. The argument is that
every authorized activity of the United States represents an exercise of its
governmental power,6 and that therefore the power to receive property through
a will is a governmental power. Since a state cannot interpose 'an obstacle to
the effective operation of a federal constitutional power', 7 the Government
argues a state cannot interfere with this power to receive. This argument fails to
recognize that the state acts upon the power of its domiciliary to give and not
on the United States' power to receive. As a legal concept a transfer of property
may be looked upon as a single transaction or it may be separated into a series
of steps. The approach chosen may determine legal consequences.8 Where
powers flow so distinctly from different sources as do the power to will and the
power to receive, we think the validity of each step is to be treated separately.
7
The United States would have no semblance of a claim here were it not for
wills probated under California law. The Fox case is only one of a long line of
cases which have consistently held that part of the residue of sovereignty
retained by the states, a residue insured by the Tenth Amendment,9 is the power
to determine the manner of testamentary transfer of a domiciliary's property and
the power to determine who may be made beneficiaries.10 It would be
anomalous to hold that, because of an amorphous doctrine of national
sovereignty, federal constitutional law reached into a California statute and
made importent that state's restrictions on the designation of beneficiaries
The United States' argument leads to the conclusion that no obstruction

whatever may be put in the way of the United States' power to receive by will.
Thus the United States could claim rights under the will of a testator whom the
state had declared incompetent, or under a will that had not been witnessed and
attested according to the laws of the state. The United States could take to the
complete exclusion of a surviving spouse, notwithstanding the state law.
The case of United States v. Perkins, 163 U.S. 625, 16 S.Ct. 1073, 41 L.Ed.
287, makes clear that obstacles may be put by states to the passage of property
by will to the United States. There the New York Court of Appeals had upheld
the application of the New York inheritance tax to personalty bequeathed the
United States. Although there is no doubt that where the United States acts in
its sovereign capacity, it is free from state taxes on that activity,11 this Court, in
affirming, said:
10
'Certainly, if it be true that the right of testamentary disposition is purely

statutory, the state has a right to require a contribution to the public treasury
before the bequest shall take effect. * * *
11
'We think that it follows from this that the act in question is not open to the
objection that it is an attempt to tax the property of the United States, since the
tax is imposed upon the legacy before it reaches the hands of the government.
The legacy becomes the property of the United States only after it has suffered
a diminution to the amount of the tax, and it is only upon this condition that the
legislature assents to a bequest of it.'12
12
We shall not overrule the Fox case, and, of course, we find no distinction
between realty and personalty. Within broad limits, the state has power to say
what is devisable and to whom it may be given. We may assume with the
United States that the state's power over testamentary gifts is not absolute,13 but
we find nothing in the Supremacy Clause which prohibits the state from
preventing its domiciliary from willing property to the Federal Government.14
13
The alternative contention is that 27 of the Probate Code, as interpreted,

discriminates against the United States in violation of the Constitution. The
argument is that even if the Supremacy Clause would not be violated if the
statute provided that no governmental body could be made the beneficiary of a
California will, there is a violation of the Supremacy Clause when the United
States is treated less advantageously than California. Apparently the capacity of
the United States to receive gifts is analogized to the right of a person to sue on
a federal cause of action in a state court. Reliance is placed on the cases which
have held that federal rights must be enforced by the courts of a state when
'ordinary jurisdiction as prescribed by local laws is appropriate to the
occasion.'15 Thus, urges appellant, since state courts may not discriminate in the
availability of judicial relief between state created rights and federally created
rights, no more can a state discriminate between California and the United
States as beneficiaries under wills.
14
When a state refuses to hear pleas based on federally created rights while it
takes cognizance of those created by state law, there may be invalid
discrimination because by the Supremacy Clause federal laws are made laws of
the state.16 Therefore to allow a suit based on state law and to refuse one based
on federal law could 'discriminate' without any reason for the classification.17
But the United States' capacity to receive, even though called a 'right' or a
'power,' is not a 'law of the state.' As we have shown in the earlier discussion,
that capacity cannot be magically transformed into something that must be
enforced. The cases upholding the rights of persons to sue are not in point.
15
In a sense, of course, the United States is being treated differently from

California, and differences and distinctions in a state's treatment of persons are
frequently claimed to be discriminatory in violation of the Equal Protection and
Privileges and Immunities Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment. But such
differences and distinctions, even when applied to persons clearly protected by
the Fourteenth Amendment, are not in themselves unconstitutional. It is only
when the variations are arbitrary and without reasonable legal basis that an
unconstitutional discrimination occurs. A long line of decisions has molded this
judicial concept.18 Thus, although we should make the somewhat dubious
assumption that the United States must receive equal protection under the
Fourteenth Amendment, there is no constitutional violation. California's
decision to permit only itself and its subordinate municipalities to be unlimited
governmental beneficiaries under the wills of its domiciliaries is based on a

permissible distinction. It is justified by reason of the state's close relationship
with its residents and their property.19 A state may by statute properly prefer
itself in this way, just as states have always preferred themselves in escheat.
16
Affirmed.
17
Mr. Justice BLACK dissents.
18
Mr. Justice DOUGLAS took no part in the consideration or decision of this

case.
In re Estate of Burnison, 33 Cal.2d 638, 204 P.2d 330; In re Estate of Sanborn,

33 Cal.2d 647, 204 P.2d 335.
Probate Code of California, 27: 'Who may take by will. A testamentary

disposition may be made to the state, to counties, to municipal corporations, to
natural persons capable by law of taking the property, to unincorporated
religious, benevolent or fraternal societies or associations or lodges or branches
thereof, and to corporations formed for religious, scientific, literary, or solely
educational or hospital or sanatorium purposes, or primarily for the public
preservation of forests and natural scenery, or to maintain public libraries,
museums or art galleries, or for similar public purposes. No other corporation
can take under a will, unless expressly authorized by statute.'
One judge dissented on the authority of In re Estate of Hendrix, 77 Cal.App.2d

647, 651653, 176 P.2d 398, 400402. The Hendrix will bequeathed
property to the United States Veterans' Administration for the aid, comfort and
assistance of disabled veterans. The California District Court of Appeal, 77
Cal.App.2d at page 651, 176 P.2d page 400, declared that this was really a
bequest to the United States, a corporation, and that its agency, the designated
beneficiary, was expressly authorized by California Probate Code 27 to take
property under a will. Thus the bequest was valid. In its opinion in the present
case, the Supreme Court held that this language had been unnecessary to the
decision and refused to extend it to the gifts now under consideration. It thought
that the Hendrix gift was good as one for charitable purposes to a legally
constituted institution. The Supreme Court thought a gift to the United States
'without qualification as to administration or purpose,' 33 Cal.2d 646, 204 P.2d
335, did not come under the classifications of associations or corporations in
27.
Matter of Will of Fox, 52 N.Y. 530, 11 Am.Rep. 751.
United States v. Fox, 94 U.S. 315, 321, 24 L.Ed. 192.
Graves v. People of State of New York ex rel. O'Keefe, 306 U.S. 466, 477, 59
S.Ct. 595, 596, 83 L.Ed. 927, 120 A.L.R. 1466; Pittman v. Home Owners' Loan
Corp., 308 U.S. 21, 32, 60 S.Ct. 15, 17, 84 L.Ed. 11, 124 A.L.R. 1263; Federal
Land Bank of St. Paul v. Bismarck Lumber Co., 314 U.S. 95, 102, 62 S.Ct. 1, 5,
86 L.Ed. 65.
United States v. Belmont, 301 U.S. 324, 331, 332, 57 S.Ct. 758, 761, 81 L.Ed.
1134.
Gregory v. Helvering, 293 U.S. 465, 55 S.Ct. 266, 79 L.Ed. 596, 97 A.L.R.
1355.
United States v. Sprague, 282 U.S. 716, 733, 51 S.Ct. 220, 222, 75 L.Ed. 640,
71 A.L.R. 1381; United States v. Darby, 312 U.S. 100, 123, 657, 61 S.Ct. 451,
461, 85 L.Ed. 609, 132 A.L.R. 1430.
10
Mager v. Grima, 8 How. 490, 493494, 12 L.Ed. 1168; United States v. Fox,
94 U.S. 315, 321, 24 L.Ed. 192; United States v. Perkins, 163 U.S. 625, 627,
628, 16 S.Ct. 1073, 1074, 41 L.Ed. 287; Plummer v. Coler, 178 U.S. 115, 137,
20 S.Ct. 829, 837, 44 L.Ed. 998; Maxwell v. Bugbee, 250 U.S. 525, 536, 40
S.Ct. 2, 5, 63 L.Ed. 1124; Lyeth v. Hoey, 305 U.S. 188, 193, 59 S.Ct. 155, 158,
83 L.Ed. 119, 119 A.L.R. 410; Irving Trust Co. v. Day, 314 U.S. 556, 562, 62
S.Ct. 398, 401, 86 L.Ed. 1734, 137 A.L.R. 1093; Demorest v. City Bank
Farmers Trust Co., 321 U.S. 36, 48, 64 S.Ct. 384, 391, 88 L.Ed. 526.
11
Mayo v. United States, 319 U.S. 441, 63 S.Ct. 1137, 87 L.Ed. 1504, 147 A.L.R.
761.
12
United States v. Perkins, 163 U.S. 625, 628, 630, 16 S.Ct. 1073, 1075, 41 L.Ed.
287.
13
Clark v. Allen, 331 U.S. 503, 67 S.Ct. 1431, 91 L.Ed. 1633, 170 A.L.R. 953.
Cf. Oyama v. California, 332 U.S. 633, 68 S.Ct. 269, 92 L.Ed. 249.
14
As was pointed out in the Fox case, our determination does not affect the right
of the United States to acquire property by purchase or eminent domain in the
face of a prohibitory statute of the state. Kohl v. United States, 91 U.S. 367, 23
L.Ed. 449. An authorized declaration of taking or a requisition will put realty or
personalty at the disposal of the United States for 'just compensation.' It may
tax testamentary transfers. Its powers will not suffer.
15
Second Employers' Liability Cases, (Mondou v. New York, N.H. & H.R. Co.),
223 U.S. 1, 56, 32 S.Ct. 169, 177, 56 L.Ed. 327, 38 L.R.A., N.S., 44; Douglas
v. New York, N.H. & H.R. Co., 279 U.S. 377, 49 S.Ct. 355, 73 L.Ed. 747;
McKnett v. St. Louis & S.F.R. Co., 292 U.S. 230, 54 S.Ct. 690, 78 L.Ed. 1227.
16
Claflin v. Houseman, 93 U.S. 130, 136, 23 L.Ed. 833; Second Employers'

Liability Cases, supra, 223 U.S. 57, 32 S.Ct. 178.
17
McKnett v. St. Louis & S.F.R. Co., supra, 292 U.S. 234, 54 S.Ct. 692; cf.
Douglas v. New York, N.H. & H.R. Co., supra.
18
E.g., City and County of Denver v. New York Trust Co., 229 U.S. 123, 33 S.Ct.
657, 57 L.Ed. 1101; Rast v. Van Deman & Lewis Co., 240 U.S. 342, 36 S.Ct.
370, 60 L.Ed. 679, L.R.A. 1917A, 421, Ann.Cas.1917B, 455; La Tourette v.
McMaster, 248 U.S. 465, 39 S.Ct. 160, 63 L.Ed. 362; Maxwell v. Bugbee, 250
U.S. 525, 40 S.Ct. 2, 63 L.Ed. 1124; New York Rapid Transit Corp. v. City of
New York 30 U.S. 573, 58 S.Ct. 721, 82 L.Ed. 1024; Queenside Hills Realty
Co. v. Saxl, 328 U.S. 80, 66 S.Ct. 850, 90 L.Ed. 1096.
19
Board of Education of Kentucky Annual Conference of Methodist Episcopal

Church v. State of Illinois, 203 U.S. 553, 27 S.Ct. 171, 51 L.Ed. 314, 8
Ann.Cas. 157; cf. Connecticut Mutual Life Ins. Co. v. Moore, 333 U.S. 541,
551, 68 S.Ct. 682, 688, 92 L.Ed. 863.

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339 U.S.

Mr. Melvin Richter, Washington, D.C., for appellant.

The California court construed 27 of the California Probate Code 2 to prevent

We have no doubt that the receipt of gifts, testamentary and nontestamentary, is

To answer this question affirmatively would require us to overrule United

The United States' argument leads to the conclusion that no obstruction

'Certainly, if it be true that the right of testamentary disposition is purely

The alternative contention is that 27 of the Probate Code, as interpreted,

In a sense, of course, the United States is being treated differently from

governmental beneficiaries under the wills of its domiciliaries is based on a

Mr. Justice BLACK dissents.

Mr. Justice DOUGLAS took no part in the consideration or decision of this

In re Estate of Burnison, 33 Cal.2d 638, 204 P.2d 330; In re Estate of Sanborn,

Probate Code of California, 27: 'Who may take by will. A testamentary

One judge dissented on the authority of In re Estate of Hendrix, 77 Cal.App.2d

Matter of Will of Fox, 52 N.Y. 530, 11 Am.Rep. 751.

United States v. Fox, 94 U.S. 315, 321, 24 L.Ed. 192.

Claflin v. Houseman, 93 U.S. 130, 136, 23 L.Ed. 833; Second Employers'

Board of Education of Kentucky Annual Conference of Methodist Episcopal

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