Americans for Prosperity Foundation urges Supreme Court to rule the IRS cannot escape judicial scrutiny of its unlawful rules

Jul 22, 2020 by AFP

Today, Americans for Prosperity’s sister organization, Americans for Prosperity Foundation, filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the U.S. Supreme Court in CIC Services, LLC v. IRS.

Americans for Prosperity Foundation asked the Court to reject the IRS’s use of the Anti-Injunction Act to shield its unlawful regulations from judicial review by requiring regulated parties to literally bet their liberty, risk imprisonment, and commit federal crimes just to get their day in court.

As Americans for Prosperity Foundation’s friend-of-the-court brief states:

AFPF believes federal agencies, like the IRS, should not be allowed to use the threat of massive civil penalties and imprisonment as a weapon to shield its actions from judicial review. Due process requires that Petitioner, and other parties regulated by the IRS, not face an unconstitutional Hobson’s choice: comply with an administrative requirement they believe is unlawful or violate the law, bet their liberty, and risk imprisonment.

The brief adds that “the IRS is not above the law” and, therefore, the agency’s “efforts to evade judicial review must end.”

In February, Americans for Prosperity Foundation previously urged the Court to hear this case on the merits to rein in the IRS’s evasion of judicial review and to protect the public’s due process right to review of IRS rules that have nothing to do with collecting taxes.

Americans for Prosperity Foundation has again asked the Court to construe the AIA consistent with the U.S. Constitution and due process. The AIA only bars the courthouse doors for ordinary challenges to tax assessments, which must go through a different process to ensure prompt collection of tax revenue necessary to fund the government.

It does not insulate IRS rules and requirements from any meaningful review by the federal courts or otherwise uniquely grant the IRS special powers that are different from those of every other federal agency. Nor does the AIA require taxpayers to break the law to challenge the legality of the IRS’s administrative and reporting requirements or otherwise condone lawlessness.

Read the full brief here.