A group that believes most Americans are not required to pay federal income taxes says it is considering a lawsuit against USA Today for the paper’s refusal to continue printing the group’s advertisements outlining its research on taxes and the 16th Amendment.
Bob Schulz, chairman of the We The People Foundation, hopes such a lawsuit would force courts to decide the merits of the group’s arguments, which are also espoused by various income-tax critics across the country.
According to Schulz, USA Today advertising representative Katie Emory contacted WTP late Wednesday afternoon, saying the paper will not accept more advertising from the organization.
When he asked for the reason behind the decision, Schulz said Emory replied that USA Today’s legal department had decided the paper should not run ads that promote illegal activities and that the ads have been classified as “offensive.”
WTP has run four full-page ads in USA Today over the last year, each outlining the group’s legal research suggesting most Americans are not required to pay federal income taxes or to have taxes withheld from their paychecks. At $64,000 each, the ads ran in the July 7, Feb. 16, March 2 and March 23 editions and are available at WTP’s website.
WorldNetDaily made several attempts to confirm USA Today’s decision, to no avail. Saying the paper would “never comment on an ad,” spokesman Steve Anderson refused to confirm whether or not the paper had decided to no longer run the WTP ad. He did, however, outline the paper’s criteria for determining an ad’s preclusion from USA Today — it is whether a given ad is libelous, illegal or patently offensive.
In a telephone conversation with USA Today Advertising Vice President Johanna DeBonte late last week, Schulz asked what specific aspects of the ads were found offensive by USA Today’s legal staff. Allegedly saying she didn’t know the details, DeBonte said the paper was not rejecting all advertising from WTP — just ads like those the group had already run.
As a private newspaper, USA Today is free to accept or reject any ad, but Schulz said he needed to know the specifics because the reputation, integrity and credibility of WTP were at stake.
“Although We The People understands that USA Today is a commercial business, providing access to fully paid advertising space for discussion of critical legal issues of national concern is essential in the practical exercise of our First Amendment rights. We the People believe that although our ads may be highly controversial, they are not ‘offensive,’ libelous, defamatory or in any other way illegal. They do not advocate breaking any law. On the contrary, they advocate obedience to our tax laws and our Constitution — by the IRS as well as by citizens,” said Schulz in a written statement.
“Our four full-page ads in USA Today have discussed specific tax laws, regulations and court cases, but in no way advocate, endorse, instruct or abet any illegal activity. Indeed, this Foundation wants a full public examination of our tax laws to compel the government to disclose their purported legal authority as evidenced by the very laws we are being censored from discussing,” he continued. “Short of those ads being blatantly offensive and illegal, We The People believes the newspaper is censoring our educational message.”
Schultz is now considering WTP’s legal options. If USA Today rejected the ads because they advocate breaking the law, the group might be able to ask a court just what law the ads advocate breaking, according to Schulz.
Through such a lawsuit, “we might be able to accomplish in court what we have been unable to get the executive and legislative branches to do, i.e., determine the legal authority of the IRS to force citizens to file and pay the income tax,” said Schulz.
The ad controversy comes on the heels of a Senate Finance Committee hearing earlier this month in which WTP was precluded from testifying because, according to committee staff, the Senate does not feel obligated to provide a forum to a group that “advocates breaking the law.”
Whether or not income-tax critics agree with the committee staff’s analysis, the consensus in all three branches of the federal government is that income-tax opponents’ legal arguments are wrong — period. During the Senate hearing, committee members and witnesses discussed shutting down websites that promote tax fraud, which hearing participants classified as including We The People’s arguments.
Even now, those who choose not to file tax returns based on research cited by We The People and other income-tax opponents such as Bill Benson, former IRS agent Joe Banister and Bill Conklin face severe penalties, including incarceration. Stiff fines and financial consequences are levied on those who act contrary to the courts’ interpretation of current law.
The April edition of WorldNet magazine is devoted entirely to an in-depth examination of the income tax, the 16th Amendment and the legal strategies opponents are using to challenge them. Titled “Tax revolt: How Americans are challenging the IRS and the 16th Amendment,” it is available from WND’s online store.
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