Washington V. Martin

Time is both enemy and friend to a good idea. Thoughts held clearly in the beginning may obscure and lose their outline as the present merges with the future and becomes the past again. Conversely, concepts vague in their beginnings may sharpen in form and shape by the passing of years and the force of events. So it is and was with Gruen v. State Tax Comm., 35 Wash. 2d 1, 211 P.2d 651. Rising sharply in bold relief from the mists of state financing, this case declared a brave new doctrine in 1949; 14 years later the march of time and events has left us wondering. The Gruen case involved the issuance and sale of limited obligation bonds to be redeemed by excise taxes on cigarettes. It directly concerned an interpretation of the state constitution's provision on the debt limit. Art. 8, §§ 1, 3. So does this case.