Thursday, September 04, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal
Stay issued in case against anti-tax author Schiff
Appellate court to consider First Amendment questions
By JANE ANN MORRISON
REVIEW-JOURNAL
An appellate court decided Wednesday to hear First Amendment issues raised by anti-tax author Irwin Schiff, a day before he was scheduled to be in court on contempt charges.
His attorney, Michael Stein, said the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals stayed a District Court order that would have required Schiff to provide the government with the names of people who have bought Schiff's books since 1999.
The court also will look at whether a federal judge can ban the sale of Schiff's book, as U.S. District Judge Lloyd George did in June.
The American Civil Liberties Union entered the case as a friend of the court and called the appellate court decision "good news for everybody who believes in freedom of speech," said ACLU attorney Allen Lichtenstein.
The stay gives the court of appeals time to rule on the question of whether Schiff should be forced to turn over his customer list.
Schiff, who owns Freedom Books in Las Vegas, has written books that contend the payment of federal income taxes is voluntary and that the government's collection of taxes is illegal.
His latest book is "The Federal Mafia: How Government Illegally Imposes and Unlawfully Collects Income Taxes."
Federal prosecutors argue that Schiff is advising people how to break laws and exposing them to prosecution if they follow his advice.
In June, George ordered Schiff to stop selling or distributing his books. Stein said Schiff has complied with the order.
But Schiff refused to turn over his customer list and his database, which holds the names of 18,000 people who have contacted him, but might not have bought anything from him.
"People's rights to privacy are being trampled on," Stein said.
Federal prosecutors asked George to hold Schiff in contempt of court for failing to turn over the information.
Stein and Lichtenstein said they would attend today's scheduled contempt hearing in federal court, but the appellate court's decision will stay the contempt issue.
"Everything is frozen," Lichtenstein said. "The injunction won't go into effect until the 9th Circuit decides these issues."
