Debate Over Tax Protester's Book Continues

by Leroy Baker, for LawAndTax-News.com, New York

30 April 2003

As attorneys from both sides gather more evidence to be submitted at the end of this week, the debate over tax protester, Irwin Schiff's controversial book, 'The Federal Mafia: How It Illegally Imposes and Unlawfully Collects Income Taxes', has continued in the US media, after it emerged that Las Vegas federal judge, Lloyd D. George had referred to Mr Schiff's zero-tax theories as 'nonsense'.

According to a National Law Journal report, after the first hearing, the judge was challenged by the defendants for cause after he observed of Schiff's readership that: 'I have some sympathy for the people who are drawn into what really is nonsense, counsel, and then they suffer the consequences.'

However, Judge George's comment was defended by use of a 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals case, which ruled that judges 'cannot be expected to remain blind to the events around them'.

The NLJ report also went on to reveal that several components of the temporary injunction against Mr Schiff and two co-workers have met with objections from the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada:

'The components are: An order that the defendants not make statements regarding the excludability of income that they know or have reason to know is false or fraudulent as to any material matter. A prohibition on the sale or distribution of the book....(and) a requirement that defendants post the restraining order in its entirety on their web sites.'

According to the ACLU, the first two provisions of the injunction attempt to prohibit fully protected non-commercial speech, and the third requirement represents impermissible forced speech.

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