Court Opinion

ID: 9481641
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 08:26:59.365729+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:48:28.932120
License: Public Domain

BOYCE F. MARTIN, Jr., Circuit Judge, dissenting.
I join with Judge Brown in his persuasive dissent. I write further only to express several personal points concerning this case. Needless to say, I disagree with the majority’s conclusion that Steele’s conduct was punishable under 18 U.S.C. § 1001. I believe that the facts of this case do not establish a violation of section 1001. In its opinion, the majority fails to specify with any degree of certainty the conduct of the defendant that constituted a violation of section 1001. In failing to do so, the majority has left the public guessing as to what conduct they believe is criminalized by section 1001.
Under our system of taxation, citizens of this country are entrusted with the responsibility of both calculating the amount and paying their income taxes. Our taxation system would be inoperable, as are the tax systems of many other countries in the world, if this were not the case. Under the majority’s view of the coverage of section 1001, no careful counselor, be he a certified public accountant or an attorney or even an advisor, will ever advise a taxpayer to do anything unless he can in fact certify to the truth of the documentation being offered to an agent of the Internal Revenue Service. This will needlessly delay, further complicate, and hopelessly snarl, what has been a reasonably effective system of the collection of the taxes in the four states that comprise our circuit.
I also join with Judge Brown in suggesting that the view taken by the Ninth and Fourth Circuits is far more realistic in the world of self-regulation than the position being taken by the majority. I realize that this presents little to convince my colleagues, however, I do feel strongly that with the majority’s opinion we are taking a step backwards rather than a step forward.