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Nature of Suit Code: 440
Nature of Suit: Other Civil Rights
Cause of Action: 

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United States Court of Appeals 

For the Seventh Circuit 

Chicago, Illinois 60604 

Submitted May 26, 2015*

Decided May 26, 2015 

Before 

RICHARD A. POSNER, Circuit Judge 

ILANA DIAMOND ROVNER, Circuit Judge 

DAVID F. HAMILTON, Circuit Judge

No. 14-3751 

RICHARD M. O’DONNELL, 

Plaintiff-Appellant, 

v. 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, et al.,

 Defendants-Appellees.

 Appeal from the United States District 

Court for the Southern District of Illinois.

No. 13-cv-1238-JPG-PMF 

J. Phil Gilbert, 

Judge. 

O R D E R 

Although Richard O’Donnell earns an income, he has not paid federal income 

taxes for at least 20 years. To collect the unpaid taxes, the Internal Revenue Service levied 

O’Donnell’s Social-Security and pension benefits, 26 U.S.C. § 6331, and issued liens on 

the debt. O’Donnell then brought this suit, alleging that the IRS improperly levied his 

benefits; in his view the IRS lacked authority to collect unpaid federal income taxes from 

him because he was not an employee of the federal government or of the pension funds. 

He asked the court to refund the amount that had been levied; to issue compensatory 

 

*

 After examining the briefs and record, we have concluded that oral argument is 

unnecessary. Thus the appeal is submitted on the briefs and record. See FED. R. APP. P.

34(a)(2)(C). 

NONPRECEDENTIAL DISPOSITION

To be cited only in accordance with Fed. R. App. P. 32.1 

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No. 14-3751 Page 2 

damages; to release all liens, levies, and tax refunds; and to award him the costs of the 

suit. 

The district court granted the defendants’ motion to dismiss the complaint. The 

court determined, first, that sovereign immunity barred O’Donnell’s claims seeking the 

release of levies and liens, see 26 U.S.C. § 7421(a), and second, that O’Donnell had not 

satisfied the necessary prerequisites to qualify for the limited waiver of sovereign 

immunity provided for in tax refund cases, see id. § 7422(a). In addition, the court 

addressed the merits of O’Donnell’s claims and found them frivolous, including his 

“fundamental” claim based on a reading of the second sentence of the general levy 

authorization statute that in his view subjected only the property of federal-government 

employees to levy. See id. § 6331(a).1 The second sentence of § 6331, the court explained, 

“does not limit the IRS’s power to use levies pursuant to the first sentence,” which 

authorizes levies upon the property of all taxpayers. 

On appeal O’Donnell does not contest the district court’s dismissal of his claims 

on sovereign-immunity grounds, but maintains that that the IRS lacks authority to levy 

his social-security and pension benefits because he is not a federal “officer, employee, or 

elected official.” 26 U.S.C. § 6331(a). The second sentence of § 6331(a) does specifically 

authorize the IRS to levy wages from federal employees. But the first sentence of 

§ 6331(a) empowers the IRS to levy the property of “any person liable to pay any tax.” 

See Sims v. United States, 359 U.S. 108, 112–13 (1959) (reference in § 6331(a)’s second 

sentence intended to subject federal employees’ salaries to the “same collection 

procedures as are available against all other taxpayers”); James v. United States, 970 F.2d 

 

1 The first two sentences of 26 U.S.C. § 6331(a) read: 

If any person liable to pay any tax neglects or refuses to pay the same 

within 10 days after notice and demand, it shall be lawful for the Secretary 

to collect such tax (and such further sum as shall be sufficient to cover the 

expenses of the levy) by levy upon all property and rights to property 

(except such property as is exempt under section 6334) belonging to such 

person or on which there is a lien provided in this chapter for the payment 

of such tax. Levy may be made upon the accrued salary or wages of any 

officer, employee, or elected official, of the United States, the District of 

Columbia, or any agency or instrumentality of the United States or the 

District of Columbia, by serving a notice of levy on the employer (as 

defined in section 3401(d)) of such officer, employee, or elected official. 

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750, 755 n.9 (10th Cir. 1992) (“Section 6331(a) empowers the IRS to levy the property of 

all taxpayers.”). And O’Donnell, as an income-earner, must pay income taxes. See Szopa 

v. United States, 453 F.3d 455, 456 (7th Cir. 2006); United States v. Cooper, 170 F.3d 691, 691 

(7th Cir. 1999); United States v. Sloan, 939 F.2d 499, 499–501 (7th Cir. 1991). 

AFFIRMED. 

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