but as a constitutional mandate. Despite favoring this position, the preponderant view appears to be that Congress will not support a single appellate court approach. Professor Johnson, a proponent of a national court of tax appeals, for instance, states that, "whatever its desirability, it is abundantly plain that, for the foreseeable future, creation of a national court of tax appeals is a political impracticability. The most recent serious proposal, the 1990 proposal, was a non-starter in Congress." Johnson attributes this to a view that the generalist judges in circuit courts have a perceived breadth of understanding and greater familiarity with non-tax sources such as state law and non-tax federal statutes, which may be important to the outcome of certain cases. He also notes "an undertone in much of the opposition [to a national court of tax appeals]: a suspicion that a tax appellate court would be pro-government in outlook and tendency." Professor Andre Smith, however, argues that the perception that the Tax Court has a pro-government bias is a threat to the legitimacy of the tax system. His view is that district court judges have a comparative advantage in sifting facts, and that they and the circuit courts have a substantial advantage on non-tax issues that touch on many tax controversies such as the common law, operation of state law and constitutional questions. He further argues that there is sometimes a constructive debate among the circuit courts upon which the Supreme Court relies if and when it decides to hear a case. Finally, he argues that a national court of tax appeals would exacerbate the existing perception of bias in Tax Court decisions by depriving taxpayers of the option to have their tax controversy adjudicated entirely by generalist judges seen to be impartial or even pro-taxpayer. The debate on uniformity and deference in tax decisions With the unlikely prospects for a national court of tax appeals, a number of commentators have argued for going back to a Dobson era approach with great deference given by the circuit courts, as well as other courts of original jurisdiction to Tax Court decisions to the extent the decisions address the law rather than factual issues. Professor Shores, for instance, argues that, short of a national court of tax appeals that would provide consistent decisions about what the tax law means, substantial improvement in the level of consistency would be provided by the appellate