“We the People Foundation” Loses Court Battle, Wins Publicity

“We the People Foundation” recently lost yet another tax-related court case, but, perhaps wining in court is not really what the group is after.

According to the court record, We the People have:

engaged since 1999 in “a nationwide effort to get the government to answer specific questions” regarding what plaintiffs view as the Government’s “violation of the taxing clauses of the Constitution” and “violation of the war powers, money and ‘privacy’ clauses of the Constitution.”

…

and they contend:

that the President, the Attorney General, the Secretary of the Treasury, the Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, and Congress neglected their responsibilities under the First Amendment to respond to plaintiffs’ petitions.

As a result, We the People brought suit claiming:

that government officials-by seeking to collect unpaid taxes-have retaliated against plaintiffs’ exercise of First Amendment rights.

We the People then asked:

the District Court to enjoin the Internal Revenue Service, the Department of Justice, and other federal agencies from retaliating against plaintiffs’ exercise of their constitutional rights (in other words, to prevent the Government from collecting taxes from them).

The district court held that the First Amendment does not provide plaintiffs with the right to receive a government response to or official consideration of their petitions. We the People then appealed this decision, arguing that:

they have a First Amendment right to receive a government response to or official consideration of their petitions. Second, plaintiffs argue that they have the right to withhold payment of their taxes until they receive adequate action on their petitions.

The court of appeals dismissed We the People’s claims. While the group lost the court case, it did get some excellent publicity for its “cause.”