Court Opinion

ID: 9468866
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 02:25:30.875465+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:41:05.429524
License: Public Domain

LOGAN, Circuit Judge,
concurring:
The remarks of Judge McKay in dissent impel me to comment upon my support of that part of the majority opinion rejecting the selective prosecution argument of the defendants. Focusing on the trial court’s finding that Amon was “selected for prosecution because he is an active and outspoken protestor,” Judge McKay apparently discredits the court’s ultimate finding that the IRS evidenced “no pattern or practice of attempting to silence Mr. Amon on any given occasion where he [chose] to exercise his First Amendment rights by the institution of investigation, arrest or prosecution”; he concludes, contrary to the trial court’s express determination, that the IRS selectively prosecuted Amon in order to shut him up. Adhering to the clearly erroneous standard, I am unwilling to discount the trial court’s findings of fact.
1 agree that citizens must be permitted to speak out against laws they regard as unjust or undesirable. If one merely called for disobedience of the tax laws, there being no crime in merely urging disobedience, I would apply the clear and present danger test, and in all probability hold that the threat of substantial and serious danger to organized government is not sufficient to warrant suppression of free speech. See Herndon v. Lowry, 301 U.S. 242, 57 S.Ct. 732, 81 L.Ed. 1066 (1936). But this is not such a case. These tax protestors and others like them are individuals who not only urge change in our tax laws and disobedience, but also state clearly and publicly that they have violated the law by refusing to file tax returns, filing essentially blank tax returns, or claiming unlawful exemptions from taxes. As part of this admission they urge others to follow their example. Thus, they become public symbols of opposition to the law and admitted lawbreakers who, under Judge McKay’s view, could not be prosecuted unless all who similarly break the law are prosecuted, or, if prosecutorial resources are insufficient, are selected for prosecution by a random or neutral process.
This precise situation apparently has not been before the Supreme Court, although the Court has upheld the constitutionality of a law punishing one who encourages commission of a crime. Fox v. Washington, 236 U.S. 273, 35 S.Ct. 383, 59 L.Ed. 573 (1915). The Supreme Court has also indicated that advocacy of violations of the law may be prohibited when “such advocacy is directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless action and is likely to incite or produce such action.” Brandenburg v. Ohio, 395 U.S. 444, 447, 89 S.Ct. 1827, 1829, 23 L.Ed.2d 430 (1969).
The Eighth Circuit has considered and rejected exactly the selective prosecution argument asserted here, apparently involving the same IRS manual. In doing so it declared,
“While the decision to prosecute an individual cannot be made in retaliation for *1360his exercise of his first amendment right to protest government war and tax policies, the prosecution of those protestors who publicly and with attendant publicity assert an alleged personal privilege not to pay taxes as part of their protest is not selection on an impermissible basis.
“. . . We noted [in United States v. Ojala, 544 F.2d 940 (8th Cir. 1976)], that selection for prosecution based in part upon the potential deterrent effect on others serves a legitimate interest in promoting more general compliance with the tax laws. Since the government lacks the means to investigate and prosecute every suspected violation of the tax laws, it makes good sense to prosecute those who will receive, or are likely to receive, the attention of the media.”
United States v. Catlett, 584 F.2d 864, 867-68 (8th Cir. 1978). In United States v. Moss, 604 F.2d 569 (8th Cir. 1979), cert. denied, 444 U.S. 1071, 100 S.Ct. 1014, 62 L.Ed.2d 752 (1980), that circuit stated,
“Freeman alleges that his speeches ‘[challenge] the constitutionality of the income tax laws as ... enforced in this country ...,’ that he ‘espouses a political cause aimed at changing the tax law in the United States ...,’ and that his actions were ‘absolutely protected’ by the first amendment, any conviction founded on the present record being ‘outside the .. . perview of ... the laws of this country.’
“Freeman’s objection was answered by this court in United States v. Buttorff, 572 F.2d 619 (8th Cir. 1978), on facts similar to those here, 572 F.2d at 623-24: ‘[T]he Supreme Court has distinguished between speech which merely advocates law violation and speech which incites imminent lawless activity. See Brandenburg v. Ohio, 395 U.S. 444, 89 S.Ct. 1827, 23 L.Ed.2d 430 (1969). The former is protected; the latter is not.
“ ‘Although the speeches here do not incite the type of imminent lawless activity referred to in criminal syndicalism cases, the defendants did go beyond mere advocacy of tax reform. They explained how to avoid withholding and their speeches and explanations incited several individuals to activity that violated federal law and had the potential of substantially hindering the administration of the revenue. This speech is not entitled to first amendment protection and, as discussed above, was sufficient action to constitute aiding and abetting the filing of false or fraudulent withholding forms.’ ”
604 F.2d at 571.
A Fifth Circuit case, United States v. Johnson, 577 F.2d 1304 (5th Cir. 1978), considered the selective prosecution argument in tax protestor cases in considerable detail. On the key point urged before us, it declared,
“ ‘[T]he conscious exercise of some selectivity in enforcement is not in itself a federal constitutional violation.’ Oyler v. Boles, supra, 368 U.S. at 456, 82 S.Ct. at 506. See also Snowden v. Hughes, 321 U.S. 1, 8, 64 S.Ct. 397, 88 L.Ed. 497 (1944). Selection, moreover, is not impermissible solely because it focuses upon those most vocal in their opposition to the law which they are accused of violating. The fact that tax protestors are vigorously prosecuted for violation of the tax laws demonstrates nothing more than a legitimate interest in punishing flagrant violators and deterring violations by others.”
577 F.2d at 1309.
The Seventh Circuit has also spoken on this issue.
“It is not improper for the Government to concentrate on those violations which appear most flagrant. United States v. Stout, 601 F.2d 325, 328 (7th Cir. 1979). As this Court recently stated in that case: ‘Aggressively displaying one’s antipathy to the * * * system or daring the government to enforce it does not create immunity from, or a defense to, prosecution.’ ”
United States v. Heilman, 614 F.2d 1133, 1139 (7th Cir.), cert. denied, 447 U.S. 922, *1361100 S.Ct. 3014, 65 L.Ed.2d 1114 (1980). Also,
“[ajssuming that the decision to indict Peskin and press for trial was based in part on consideration of his political prominence, this is not an impermissible basis for selection. It makes good sense to prosecute those who will receive the media’s attention. Publication of the proceedings may enhance the deterrent effect of the prosecution and maintain public faith in the precept that public officials are not above the law.”
United States v. Peskin, 527 F.2d 71, 86 (7th Cir. 1975), cert. denied, 429 U.S. 818, 97 S.Ct. 63, 50 L.Ed.2d 79 (1976).
Our own circuit has previously set forth the same principles in reviewing a case involving violations of a zoning ordinance.
“Mere failure to prosecute other offenders is no basis for a finding of denial of equal protection. ‘[TJhe conscious exercise of some selectivity in enforcement is not in itself a federal constitutional violation.’ Oyler v. Boles, 368 U.S. 448, 456, 82 S.Ct. 501, 506, 7 L.Ed.2d 446 (1962). Selective enforcement without malicious intent may be justified when a test case is needed to clarify a doubtful law, Mackay Telegraph Co. v. Little Rock, 250 U.S. 94, 100, 39 S.Ct. 428, 63 L.Ed. 863 (1919), or when officials seek to prosecute a particularly egregious violation and thereby deter other violators. People v. Utica Daw’s Drug Co., 16 A.D.2d 12, 225 N.Y.S.2d 128, 4 A.L.R.3d 393 (1962). Appellee informs us that many of the other violators called as witnesses by appellant have ceased their illegal practices as a result of the experience.”
Cook v. City of Price, 566 F.2d 699, 701 (10th Cir. 1977). See United States v. Rickman, 638 F.2d 182 (10th Cir. 1980) (tax protestor case).
I am in agreement with the expressions in the quotations I have set out. I think Judge Holloway’s opinion handles the selective prosecution issue at least as favorably toward defendants as they are entitled, and I agree with his handling of the other issues in the appeal. I therefore join in that opinion.