Brennan

I. Overview

The district court denied Plaintiffs’ Motion to Remand to state court and granted Defendants’ Motion for Judgment on the Pleadings. Plaintiffs appeal. For the reasons *1408 stated below, we affirm the district court in both respects.

II. Background

Section 4261 of the Internal Revenue Code (“IRC”) required airline passengers to pay a ten percent excise tax on domestic air transportation commenced prior to 1996. The IRC required airlines to collect the tax from their customers and remit the proceeds twice monthly to the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”). 26 U.S.C. § 4291 ; 26 C.F.R. 40.6302(c)-l(b)(l)(i). The IRC had imposed this tax since 1941. See Revenue Act of 1941, ch. 412, 55 Stat. 687 , 721 (1941).

Airlines routinely sold tickets in 1995 for flights in 1996 — flights to which the tax did not apply. Many airlines collected the tax on these tickets anyway because they expected Congress to extend the tax into 1996. 1 The airlines expectations were proved wrong, however, when President Clinton vetoed the bill that would have extended the tax. 2 Nevertheless, the airlines continued to collect the tax throughout the remainder of 1995 because they expected Congress…