Court Opinion

ID: 9486981
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 12:05:23.450071+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:52:02.451534
License: Public Domain

CUDAHY, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
In a context bearing some similarity to the one before us, Justice Holmes made his famous comment:
Men must turn square corners when they deal with the Government.
Rock Island, A. & L.R. Co. v. United States, 254 U.S. 141, 143, 41 S.Ct. 55, 56, 65 L.Ed. 188 (1920).
The present case seems to require not only “square corners” but a whole course of close order drill. I suspect that even Justice Holmes would have been appalled at the apparent injustice inflicted on this taxpayer confronted by a regulatory maze. Nevertheless, I see no escape from the inexorable — if slightly apologetic — logic of the majority opinion. But as the majority points out, the Internal Revenue Service ought to be able to do a great deal better than its performance here indicates.