Court Opinion

ID: 9474587
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 05:02:25.096591+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:44:11.929097
License: Public Domain

*78ADAMS, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
The question of what law controls judicial review of Internal Revenue Service (IRS) decisions concerning disclosure of “return information” is a difficult as well as an important one. It is unfortunate that the applicable enactments do not provide clearer guidance, particularly for cases such as this that present the potentially troubling use of disclosure statutes to allow the target of an ongoing criminal investigation to inquire into the progress of that investigation.
Today, the Court decides that the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), and not the facially relevant statute in the Internal Revenue Code, 26 U.S.C. § 6103(e)(7) (1982), controls judicial review of disclosure decisions. Arguments presented by the IRS in favor of application of § 6103(e)(7) in the present situation are not without force: in general, specific provisions govern in place of general statutes, and later enactments take precedence over earlier ones. Morton v. Mancari, 417 U.S. 535, 550-51, 94 S.Ct. 2474, 2482-83, 41 L.Ed.2d 290 (1974). Both of these rules would favor adherence to the Internal Revenue Code provision alone. But these principles by themselves do not relieve a court of its duty to attempt to give meaning to all Congressional pronouncements. “The courts are not at liberty to pick and choose among congressional enactments, and when two statutes are capable of co-existence, it is the duty of the courts, absent a clearly expressed congressional intention to the contrary, to regard each as effective.” Id. at 551, 94 S.Ct. at 2483.
In my view, the majority has persuasively reconciled the statutes at issue here. Section 6103(e)(7), upon which the IRS relies, contains no provision setting forth judicial review, and there is no statement of legislative intent to explain this omission. In contrast, the Freedom of Information Act allows criteria for review that are detailed in other statutes to be employed along with FOIA procedures, 5 U.S.C. § 552(b)(3)(B) (1982), and therefore provides a vehicle for giving effect to each statute.
Finally, as Judge Sloviter explains, it is noteworthy that § 6110, another IRS disclosure statute included in the Tax Reform Act of 1976 that also produced § 6103(e)(7), was written as the exclusive method of disclosure of material covered by § 6110 and set forth its own procedures for judicial review. See 26 U.S.C. § 6110 (1982).1 These provisions in § 6110, and references in the legislative history concerning the enactment of the statute, suggest that Congress was aware of FOIA at the time it enacted the Tax Reform Act, and yet it made no attempt to bar the application of FOIA to § 6103(e)(7). See S.Rep. No. 94-938, Pt. I, 94th Cong., 2d. Sess. 303-15 (1976), reprinted in 1976 U.S.Code Cong. & Admin.News 3439, 3732-44.2 This observation reinforces the view that FOIA and § 6103(e)(7) may be read harmoniously.
I remain concerned that the application of FOIA to the disclosure of “return information” during criminal investigations may result in more liberal disclosure than Congress consciously intended; indeed, I am skeptical that Congress contemplated the result in this case. Nevertheless, the majority opinion fulfills the responsibility of the courts to give all possible effect to each Congressional enactment, and for that reason I concur in the result reached. If Congress disagrees, as it very well may, a simple amendment can readily clarify its intent.

. The provision later codified as § 6110 immediately preceded that which became § 6103. See Tax Reform Act of 1976, Pub.L. No. 94-455, § 1201, 90 Stat. 1660 (codified as amended at 26 U.S.C. § 6110); id. at § 1202, 90 Stat. 1667 (codified as amended at 26 U.S.C. § 6103).

. Indeed, the discussion of FOIA in the Senate report concerning § 6110 directly precedes the discussion of § 6103 which includes no reference to FOIA. See S.Rep. No. 94-938, Pt. I at 315, reprinted in 1976 U.S.Code Cong. & Admin. News at 3744.
Neither Zale Corp. v. IRS, 481 F.Supp. 486 (D.D. C.1979), nor any court to follow Zale has addressed the import of § 6110 to the question at issue in this case.