Deborah A. Geier (Cleveland State) has published Murphy and the Evolution of "Basis", 113 Tax Notes 576 (Nov. 6, 2006).  Here is part of the Introduction:

While there are many interesting aspects of the case, I would like to focus on what I think to be the key that underlies the panel’s conclusion and that should result in its reversal. Stripped to its bare essentials, the panel opinion appears to hold that our understanding of the core concept of tax basis (or capital) must be frozen as of 1913, when the Sixteenth Amendment was adopted and the first tax on income was enacted under it. I think that this holding is not only unwise but inconsistent with prior Supreme Court precedent in Taft v. Bowers.