Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!csd4.milw.wisc.edu!dogie.macc.wisc.edu!uwvax!rutgers!att!chinet!patrick
From: patrick@chinet.chi.il.us (Patrick A. Townson)
Newsgroups: news.misc
Subject: Re: Freedom of hate
Message-ID: <8271@chinet.chi.il.us>
Date: 23 Apr 89 01:45:53 GMT
References: <14130@gryphon.COM> <8132@chinet.chi.il.us> <1216@frog.UUCP> <8257@chinet.chi.il.us> <3941@ficc.uu.net>
Reply-To: patrick@chinet.chi.il.us (Patrick A. Townson)
Organization: Chinet - Public Access Unix
Lines: 89

In article <3941@ficc.uu.net> jeffd@ficc.uu.net (jeff daiell) writes:
  
>Perhaps not.  But there are times when the implementation of a basic
>law is so outrageous that redress is possible.  Case in point: some
>time back, Congress passed a law prohibiting "frivolous" tax returns --
>their word for returns citing the Federal Constitution as a reason
>for not paying tribute money to the Fedscists.  A woman filed a
>return PROPERLY FILLED OUT and WITH A CHECK FOR THE AMOUNT REQUIRED.
>She included in the envelope a letter asking how much of her
>tax money went to the military.  Despite the fact that her tax form
>was properly completed, and the required funds enclosed, the Income
>Robbery Syndicate fined her for filing a frivolous return.  The
>ACLU took her case and she won, and Congress has since rewritten
>the law to rein in the more repressive tendencies of the IRS in this
>particular area.


Generally, your tax return is not just the sheet of paper you sign and
staple your check on, but all the other enclosures in the envelope, by
reference thereto. A tax return is supposed to contain nothing but the
necessary facts required to calculate the amount of tax payment and/or
credit. A letter to the President enclosed with your tax return thanking
him for the good work he is doing could constitute a 'frivolous' return.
Friviolity, it seems, is *anything* not directly related to the computation
of taxes and making settlement for same with your payment.

I quite agree the IRS occassionlly gets very zealous in the enforcement of
its rules. But since the IRS has nothing to do with the allocation of the
money thus collected, the lady's questions and comments probably should have
been directed to someone at the Pentagon rather than someone at the IRS.

>Contempt of course can be abused incredibly.  There have been cases
>where judges cited county commissioners for refusing to raise
>judges' pay, or refusing to increase a court system's operating
>budget.  And don't forget some of the bizarre contempt rulings
>by Judge Hoffman during the Chicago 7 trial -- rulings so, uh,
>contemptible, that even so rightwingers were scandalized.
>
>And there was recently a judge citing attorneys for contempt for
>not addressing each other as "Doctor".  And while having a
>terminal degree brings with it, in academia, the privilege of
>being so addressed, I think that ruling was proposterous.


Contempt charges are abused a great deal. Depends on the level of the
court and various other circumstances as to how extreme it can be.
In the Circuit Court of Cook County and its branches (Chicago and
some suburbs) there are three sources of authority. The authority of
the judges is unlimited *only* in matters related to the detirmination
of facts in cases before them. They have no control over the other two
parts of the system, namely the administration of the complex of 
buildings and grounds, or the administration of the Cook County Jail.
In fact the judges report to their supervisor, the Chief Judge, and
the Chief Judge's authority is equal to, but not greater than the
authority of the Court Aministrator and the Jail Superintendent.

If they tried to bring contempt charges against an attorney or some other
court employee, it would only be after consultation with their supervisor.
Their judgment is considered the final word on the finding of facts, but
in other matters no one cares what they think or want. An attorney can
be found in contempt for something directly related to the trial going
on, but cannot be (at least here) found in contempt for non-trial matters.

If an attorney's decorum is called into question, the matter is referred
to the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Committee, which is
an administrative function of the Illinois Supreme Court. Judges, on the
other hand are first counseled by their supervisor, and then before a
committee at the Illinois Supreme Court if discipline in some non-criminal
matter relating to the judge's behavior is required.

The Admininstrative Office and the Cook County Jail have their own rules
and regulations and they could care less what some local judge likes or
does not like. On the occassions when a judge has raised cain with the
jail personnel for taking too long to bring inmates over for trial or doing
something else he did not like, they go back and complain about him
instead.

>       "The hottest places in Hell are reserved for those 
>   who, in times of moral crisis, preserved their neutrality."
>

I am in one hundred percent agreement!



-- 
Patrick Townson 
  patrick@chinet.chi.il.us / ptownson@bu-cs.bu.edu / US Mail: 60690-1570 
  FIDO: 115/743 / AT&T Mail: 529-6378 (!ptownson) /  MCI Mail: 222-4956