美国有线新闻 CNN 美南达科他州计划增设电商销售税

 

Today’s show starts with a pair of significant cases in front of the U.S. Supreme¹ Court.

今天的节目从美国最高法院的两起重要案件开始。

The first involves part of a federal law that concerned immigrants to the U.S. It said that people who came to the country legally but who were not American citizens could be deported³ if they’ve been convicted of crimes of violence. Both the Obama and Trump⁴ administrations supported the law when it came to a legal immigrant from the Philippines who was convicted twice of home burglary in California.

第一个涉及到联邦法律，涉及到美国的移民。联邦法律表示，合法移民但非美国公民的人如果被判犯有暴力罪，就应被驱逐出境。在来自菲律宾的一名合法移民，在加州被判两次入室盗窃的事件中，奥巴马和特朗普两届政府都支持这项法律，

At first, a lower court ruled that his convictions amounted to a crime of violence. But the man’s lawyers appealed the decision, arguing their client wasn’t given notice that his crimes would result in deportation⁵, and that the "crimes of violence" part of the law wasn’t clear enough.

起初，下级法院裁定其罪行等同于暴力犯罪。但该男子的律师对这一判决提出上诉，称其当事人没有注意到自己的罪行将导致被驱逐出境，因为法律的“暴力犯罪”部分还不够清楚。

In a 5-4 ruling, the Supreme Court decided⁶ the law was too vague to be constitutional because Congress didn’t define what exactly would qualify as a violent crime. So, in this case, the immigrant from the Philippines won’t be automatically deported.

在一项5-4的裁决中，最高法院裁定该法律太过模糊，不能成为宪法，因为国会没有明确界定什么是暴力犯罪。因此，在这种情况下，来自菲律宾的移民不会被自动驱逐出境。

The ruling is limited though. Experts say the government can still deport² legal immigrants convicted of obvious violent crimes like murder.

但这项裁决是有限的。专家表示，政府仍然可以驱逐被判犯有明显暴力罪行如谋杀的合法移民。

The second case involves sales tax in the Internet. Oftentimes, when you buy something online in the U.S., you don’t have to pay sales tax, unless you’re buying from Amazon itself, which charges it in most states, or if you’re shopping at a retail⁷ company that has a physical store in your state.

第二个案例涉及到互联网上的销售税。通常，当你在美国网上买东西的时候，不必缴纳销售税，除非你是在亚马逊上购买，这在大多数州是收费的，或者你在一家有实体店的零售公司购物。

South Dakota wants this changed. It says states are missing out on billions of dollars in e-commerce taxes when people don’t pay them online, and it wants companies that sell more than $100,000 worth of goods in a year to collect taxes for South Dakota.

南达科他州想要改变这一情况。它说，人们在线购物，但是不支付电子商务税，国家就会失去数十亿美元的电子商务税，而且它希望在一年之内销售价值超过10万美元的商品的公司来为南达科他州征收税款。

But many smaller businesses like ones that sell on eBay don’t want to be forced to collect taxes. They say they’ll lose thousands of they have to charge sales tax and that the different taxes that states and cities have are too complicated to keep up with. The Supreme Court’s decision on this is expected to come at around the beginning of summer.

但许多像eBay这样的小公司不希望被迫收税。他们表示，这将会损失成千上万的顾客，因为他们必须征收销售税，而各州和城市所征收的不同税都过于复杂，无法跟上。最高法院的这一决定预计将在夏季初开始。

1 supreme   

adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的

参考例句：

• It was the supreme moment in his life.那是他一生中最重要的时刻。
• He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。

2 deport   

vt.驱逐出境

参考例句：

• We deport aliens who slip across our borders.我们把偷渡入境的外国人驱逐出境。
• More than 240 England football fans are being deported from Italy following riots last night.昨晚的骚乱发生后有240多名英格兰球迷被驱逐出意大利。

3 deported   

v.将…驱逐出境( deport的过去式和过去分词 )；举止

参考例句：

• They stripped me of my citizenship and deported me. 他们剥夺我的公民资格，将我驱逐出境。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The convicts were deported to a deserted island. 罪犯们被流放到一个荒岛。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

5 deportation   

n.驱逐，放逐

参考例句：

• The government issued a deportation order against the four men.政府发出了对那4名男子的驱逐令。
• Years ago convicted criminals in England could face deportation to Australia.很多年以前，英国已定罪的犯人可能被驱逐到澳大利亚。

6 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

7 retail   

v./n.零售；adv.以零售价格

参考例句：

• In this shop they retail tobacco and sweets.这家铺子零售香烟和糖果。
• These shoes retail at 10 yuan a pair.这些鞋子零卖10元一双。