LEWISTON — After four decades of practicing law, George Isaacson will go to Washington next month to argue a case before the highest court in the country.

Isaacson, a senior partner at the local Brann and Isaacson law firm, is the lead attorney representing the Direct Marketing Association based in New York and Washington. That group is the largest national and international trade association representing catalog companies and electronic merchants. Isaacson has represented the DMA as well as individual companies on a range of constitutional issues in state and federal courts throughout the country.

The case that will take him to Washington on Dec. 8 hinges on the appeal of a case involving the DMA.

Four years ago, Colorado enacted a law that would require catalog companies and Internet merchants that are located outside the state and don’t collect Colorado sales tax to report the names of their customers as well as certain information about their transactions to the Colorado Department of Revenue.

The law also would require out-of-state retailers to provide notices to Colorado customers concerning their sales tax obligations. The state passed the law because of a 1992 U.S. Supreme Court case involving North Dakota in which the court ruled that an out-of-state retailer that makes sales to customers in a particular state, but doesn’t have a retail or other physical presence there, can’t be compelled to collect state sales tax.

The law enacted in Colorado in 2010 was an apparent effort by that state’s lawmakers to bypass that 1992 court ruling.

Soon after the law was enacted, the DMA retained Brann and Isaacson to challenge the constitutionality of Colorado’s new law. The firm obliged by filing a complaint in federal court in Denver alleging several constitutional violations. The complaint said that the law discriminated against interstate commerce because the requirement of collecting and conveying customer information only applied to out-of-state merchants. The suit also charged violations of right to privacy under the U.S. Constitution.

Isaacson’s firm took the matter to court before the law took effect. A federal judge agreed with the DMA that the law violated the so-called “commerce clause” and imposed a preliminary injunction, effectively preventing the law from being implemented. That was followed eventually by a permanent injunction.

The case was appealed to the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver.

That court declined to rule on the underlying facts of the case and their constitutionality, deciding instead to dismiss the case on the basis that the federal district court in Denver had no jurisdiction to decide the case.

A 1937 federal statute called the Tax Injunction Act required taxpayers in any given state to challenge state tax assessments in that state’s courts. Federal courts lacked the jurisdiction to stop states from assessing and collecting state taxes.

The federal appeals court pointed to that federal statute as reason to vacate the lower federal court’s ruling and dismiss the case.

Isaacson took the case to a state court in Colorado, which issued a temporary injunction on the same grounds as had the federal district court in Denver. At the same time, Isaacson’s firm filed a request that the U.S. Supreme Court rule on the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision to dismiss the case.

“We believe that the Tax Injunction Act did not apply to a case by a non-taxpayer that is not protesting any tax assessment,” he said, “but is, instead, protesting a regulatory obligation, in this case, state law that says you need to turn over information to the Department of Revenue.”

Because the out-of-state merchants Isaacson represents are not taxpayers or would-be taxpayers in Colorado, Isaacson will argue before the nation’s high court that the Tax Injunction Act doesn’t apply to them.

Challenging the constitutionality of the 2010 state law doesn’t fall with the purview of the 1937 federal law, Isaacson said.

The U.S. Supreme Court decided to hear Isaacson’s case among roughly 70 others out of an estimated 7,000 cases seeking an audience with the court, “very long odds,” Isaacson pointed out.

One of the reasons the high court likely accepted the case is that two other federal circuit courts have taken opposing stances to the Denver federal appeals court ruling, Isaacson said. Two dozen states have signed on as “friends of the court” supporting Colorado in this case; and many organizations aligned with DMA have filed briefs supporting Isaacson’s arguments.

If he is successful, Isaacson will see the case sent back to the circuit court in Denver for a decision on the constitutional arguments he raised in his initial suit.

Isaacson has been assisted by Matt Schaefer, a partner in the firm who will be at Isaacson’s side in Washington.

Isaacson, who grew up in Auburn, began practicing law in 1974 with former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell before he went on to become a federal judge, then U.S. Senate majority leader.

Isaacson graduated from Bowdoin College (where he continues to teach constitutional law) and the University of Pennsylvania Law School.

The Lewiston law firm was started in the 1920s by two partners: Louis Brann, who went on to become a two-term Maine governor, and Peter Isaacson. The firm began working with mail-order companies and direct marketers in the 1960s and went on to become general counsel to L.L. Bean.

Isaacson said he doesn’t expect to become any more nervous when he appears before the nine U.S. Supreme Court justices next month than he has been in his dozens of appearances before federal and state courts that hear appeals.

“I don’t think it will be substantially different than the kind of adrenaline rush I get whenever I’m arguing before an appellate court,” he said. Preparation will focus on questions he anticipates individual justices are likely to ask based on his reading of transcripts of oral arguments in similar cases, as well as court opinions, prevailing and dissenting alike.

“I certainly feel excited about it and enthusiastic about it,” he said. “I’m looking forward to it.”

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