Johnson Amendment 1954
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Johnson Amendment refers to a change in the U.S. tax code made in 1954 which
prohibited tax-exempt organizations from endorsing or opposing political candidates.
Background
Proposed by then-Senator Lyndon B. Johnson, the amendment affects churches and other
nonprofit organizations with 501(c) tax exemptions. In recent years the Alliance
Defending Freedom has attempted to challenge the Johnson Amendment through the
Pulpit Freedom Initiative, which urges church pastors to violate the statute in protest. The
ADF contends that the amendment violates First Amendment rights.
501(c) Prohibition
Organizations formed under Section 501(c)(3) of the U.S. tax code are subject to limits or
absolute prohibitions on engaging in political activities and risk loss of status as tax
exempt status if violated. Specifically, they are prohibited from conducting political
campaign activities to intervene in elections to public office.
IRS explanation of the statute
The Internal Revenue Service website elaborates upon this prohibition as follows:
Under the Internal Revenue Code, all section 501(c)(3) organizations are absolutely
prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political
campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office.
Contributions to political campaign funds or public statements of position (verbal or
written) made on behalf of the organization in favor of or in opposition to any candidate
for public office clearly violate the prohibition against political campaign activity.
Violating this prohibition may result in denial or revocation of tax-exempt status and the
imposition of certain excise taxes.
Certain activities or expenditures may not be prohibited depending on the facts and
circumstances. For example, certain voter education activities (including presenting
public forums and publishing voter education guides) conducted in a non-partisan manner
do not constitute prohibited political campaign activity. In addition, other activities
intended to encourage people to participate in the electoral process, such as voter
registration and get-out-the-vote drives, would not be prohibited political campaign
activity if conducted in a non-partisan manner.
On the other hand, voter education or registration activities with evidence of bias that (a)
would favor one candidate over another; (b) oppose a candidate in some manner; or (c)
have the effect of favoring a candidate or group of candidates, will constitute prohibited
participation or intervention.
The Internal Revenue Service provides resources to exempt organizations and the public
to help them understand the prohibition. As part of its examination program, the IRS also
monitors whether organizations are complying with the prohibition.
Defects in Ratification of the
16th Amendment
"If you...examined [The 16th Amendment] carefully, you would find
that a sufficient number of states never ratified that amendment." U.S. District Court Judge James C. Fox 2003.
What the IRS website and the Government in general refuse to
recognize is that the Sixteenth Amendment to the Constitution
of the United States was never ratified by a majority of the
States. Only two or less States properly ratified the proposed
Amendment. In February 1913 Secretary of State Knox falsely
declared the 16th Amendment ratified and the government has been
unlawfully demanding taxes ever since.
The 16th Amendment allegedly entitled the government to collect
uneven taxes. The U.S. Constitution does not preclude taxation it
dictates that tax be uniform for everyone, except Indians, and
apportioned equally across all the States:
Article I, Section 2: "..Representatives and direct Taxes shall be
apportioned among the several States which may be included within
this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be
determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including
those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not
taxed, three fifths of all other Persons. The actual Enumeration shall
be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of
the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in
such Manner as they shall by Law direct."
The 16th Amendment is claimed by the federal government in the
federal territory of Washington, D.C. to authorize their private
collection company, the IRS, to collect "income tax". However if the
16th was not properly ratified the IRS has no legal authority to collect
tax. The same applies to local County and State tax collectors who are
also bound by the U.S. Constitution.
After an exhaustive year long search of legislative records in 48
sovereign States conducted by Bill Benson, (Alaska & Hawaii were not
admitted into the Union until after 1913). the only record of the 16th
Amendment ever having been confirmed was a fraudulent
proclamation made by the Secretary of State Philander Knox on
February 25, 1913, wherein he simply declared it to be "in effect", but
never stated that it was lawfully ratified. Bill Benson's has an excellent
website, support him: The Law That Never Was
Even if the 16th Amendment were properly ratified, according to
Article 1, Section 9 of the Constitution, it has always been
unconstitutional for the U.S. Federal Government to directly tax "We
the People" in their property, wages, salaries, or earnings. U.S.
Supreme Court Judges repeatedly rejected any claims that the 16th
Amendment changed the constitutional limits on direct taxes:
Brushaber v. Union Pacific R.R. Co., 240 U.S. 1, The Supreme Court
ruled that the 16th "created no new power of taxation" and that it "did
not change the constitutional limitations which forbid any direct
taxation of individuals". This and other similar cases have never been
overturned.
An argument often made by judges attempting to ignore the fact of
the failure to ratify the 16th, is that precedence under Common Law
now exists because the IRS has been mugging the public for so long
and this somehow legalizes the IRS and the local County Tax
collector. However, the U.S. Constitution is higher law than the
precedence of Common Law, which in itself represents the will of the
people and not the will of the government. Article I, Section 2 of the
Constitution dictates that the IRS and the local County Tax collector
are collecting tax unlawfully.
Bill Benson's exhaustive investigation of the history of the 16th
Amendment revealed the following defects and prove the 16th horribly
failed to receive the necessary three-fourths of the States approval.
To have been ratified 36 of the 48 States would have had to properly
ratify the 16th Amendment. Naturally for something as significant as
the U.S. Constitution, ratification of an Amendment is extremely
important and serious, typos, spelling and anything that is not an
exact copy of the Amendment is utterly unacceptable, this is no preschool project.
Record of Failed Ratification of 16th Amendment As
Recorded By Secretary Of State SEE:
KEY:
01- Not ratified by state legislature, and so reported
02- Not ratified by state legislature, but reported as ratified
03- Missing or incomplete evidence of ratification, but reported as
ratified
04- Failure of Governor or other official to sign, although required by
State Constitution
05- Other violation of State Constitution in ratification process
06- Other procedural irregularity making ratification doubtful
07- Approval, but with change in wording, accepted as ratification of
original version
08- Approval, but with change in spelling, accepted as ratification of
original version
09- Approval, but with change in capitalization, accepted as ratification
of original version
10- Approval, but with change in punctuation, accepted as ratification
of original version
State
01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10
Alabama
1
1 1
Arizona
1 1 1
1
Arkansas
1 1 1
1 1
California
1 1 1
1 1
Colorado
1 1 1
1
Connecticut 1
Delaware
1
Florida
1
Georgia
1 1 1
1
1
Idaho
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Kansas
1 1 1 1
1
1
1 1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1 1 1 1
1
1
Kentucky
Louisiana
Maine
Maryland
Massachusetts
Michigan
Minnesota
Mississippi
Missouri
Montana
1
1 1 1
1
1 1
1 1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1 1 1 1 1
1 1 1 1
1
1 1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
Nebraska
1
1
Nevada
1
1
New
1
Hampshire
New Jersey
1 1
1
New Mexico
1 1
New York
1
1
North Carolina
1
North Dakota
1
1
Ohio
1
1
Oklahoma
1 1
1
Oregon
1
1
Pennsylvania 1
Rhode Island 1
South
1 1
1
Carolina
South Dakota
1
1 1
1
Tennessee
1 1
1 1 1
Texas
1
1 1 1
1
Utah
1
Vermont
1
1 1
1
Virginia
1
Washington
1 1
1
1
West Virginia
1 1
Wisconsin
1
1
Wyoming
1 1
1 1
1
Total
7 3 9 6 25 29 22 1 31
Additional
7 3 7 5 16 6 2 0 2
Ratification
Failures
7 10 17 22 38 44 46 46 48
Accumulated
KEY
01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
27
0
48
10
KEY:
01- Not ratified by state legislature, and so reported
02- Not ratified by state legislature, but reported as ratified
03- Missing or incomplete evidence of ratification, but reported as
ratified
04- Failure of Governor or other official to sign, although required by
State Constitution
05- Other violation of State Constitution in ratification process
06- Other procedural irregularity making ratification doubtful
07- Approval, but with change in wording, accepted as ratification of
original version
08- Approval, but with change in spelling, accepted as ratification of
original version
09- Approval, but with change in capitalization, accepted as ratification
of original version
10- Approval, but with change in punctuation, accepted as ratification
of original version
In the above table, the line "Additional" are the number of States for
which that defect is in addition to previously indicated defects, and
"Ratification Failures Accumulated" is a running total of States with
defects, from Defect 01 through 10.
Since 36 states were required to ratify, the failure of 13 to ratify would
be fatal to the amendment, and this occurs within the first three
defects, arguably the most serious. Even if we were to ignore
defects of spelling, capitalization, and punctuation, we would
still have only two states which successfully ratified.
Note that in the above we are counting Ohio as a State, even though it
was not admitted into the Union until 1953 (retroactively, which is
expost facto, and unconstitutional). We are not counting the failure to
designate the Income Tax Amendment as the "XVII" amendment,
since there was arguably a 13th Amendment that was ratified but
which is not published in official copies of the Constitution with
Amendments, and the number is not necessarily part of the
amendment (It wasn't part of the first 10.).
The authority usually cited for the criticality of ratification without
errors of spelling, capitalization, or punctuation, is from DOCUMENT
NO. 97-120, of the 97TH CONGRESS, 1st Session, entitled How Our
Laws Are Made, written by Edward F. Willett, Jr. Esq., Law Revision
Counsel of the United States House of Representatives, in which the
comparable exactitude in which bills must be concurred under federal
legislative rules is detailed:
Each amendment must be inserted in precisely the proper place in
the bill, with the spelling and punctuation exactly the same as it
was adopted by the House. Obviously, it is extremely important
that the Senate receive a copy of the bill in the precise form in
which it passed the House. The preparation of such a copy is the
function of the enrolling clerk. (at 34) (emphasis added)
When the bill has been agreed to in identical form by both bodieseither without amendment by the Senate, or by House concurrence in
the Senate amendments, or by agreement in both bodies to the
conference report - a copy of the bill is enrolled for presentation to the
President.
The preparation of the enrolled bill is a painstaking and important task
since it must reflect precisely the effect of all amendments,
either by deletion, substitution, or addition, agreed to by both bodies.
The enrolling clerk ... must prepare meticulously the final form of the
bill, as it was agreed to by both Houses, for presentation to the
President.... each (amendment) must be set out in the enrollment
exactly as agreed to, and all punctuation must be in accord with
the action taken. (at 45) (emphasis added)
In his report on the failure of ratifications of the Income Tax
Amendment to then Secretary of State Philander Knox, the Solicitor of
the Department of State recognized and acknowledged the defects of
ratification. Knox failed to demand mandatory corrective action by the
States.
Knox had plenty of clues to the problems in the ratifications, sufficient
to justify that he inquire into the matter further and demand corrective
action by the States. Because he failed to do so means that we now
have adopted and enforced legislation for more than 80 years that is
plainly unconstitutional, requiring not only that it be repealed, but
that all the funds collected be refunded.
The 16th is not ratified, has not been ratified and is not law.
Even if the 16th Amendment were properly ratified, according to
Article 1, Section 9 of the Constitution, it has always been
unconstitutional for the U.S. Federal Government to directly tax We
the People in their property, wages, salaries, or earnings. The U.S.
Supreme Court rejected any claims that the 16th Amendment changed
the constitutional limits on direct taxes in Brushaber v. Union Pacific
R.R. Co., 240 U.S. 1, and ruled that the 16th "created no new power
of taxation" and that it "did not change the constitutional limitations
which forbid any direct taxation of individuals".
By law the entities that have unlawfully taken money from individuals
and corporations must return that money, the money has in effect
been stolen.
Either the U.S. is a nation of laws or it is a lawless nation. And if the
latter is the case then why pay a corrupt and criminal government? In
such a case should not one take up 2nd Amendment arms and defend
the right to freedom just as the Founding Fathers did?
see Bill Benson's site:
http://www.thelawthatneverwas.com/new/ratification.asp
See Also: IRS Suffering Repeated Defeats
The IRS website at
http://www.irs.gov/irs/article/0,,id=149200,00.html
History of IRS:
lists a Brief
Origin (As reported on the IRS Website)
The roots of IRS go back to the Civil War when President Lincoln and
Congress, in 1862, created the position of commissioner of Internal
Revenue and enacted an income tax to pay war expenses. The income
tax was repealed 10 years later. Congress revived the income tax in
1894, but the Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional the following
year.
16th Amendment (As reported on the IRS Website)
In 1913, Wyoming ratified the 16th Amendment, providing the threequarter majority of states necessary to amend the Constitution. The
16th Amendment gave Congress the authority to enact an income tax.
That same year, the first Form 1040 appeared after Congress levied a
1 percent tax on net personal incomes above $3,000 with a 6 percent
surtax on incomes of more than $500,000.
In 1918, during World War I, the top rate of the income tax rose to 77
percent to help finance the war effort. It dropped sharply in the postwar years, down to 24 percent in 1929, and rose again during the
Depression. During World War II, Congress introduced payroll
withholding and quarterly tax payments.
A New Name (As reported on the IRS Website)
In the 50s, the agency was reorganized to replace a patronage system
with career, professional employees. The Bureau of Internal Revenue
name was changed to the Internal Revenue Service. Only the IRS
commissioner and chief counsel are selected by the president and
confirmed by the Senate.
Today’s IRS Organization (As reported on the IRS Website)
The IRS Restructuring and Reform Act of 1998 prompted the most
comprehensive reorganization and modernization of IRS in nearly half
a century. The IRS reorganized itself to closely resemble the private
sector model of organizing around customers with similar needs.
The IRS Code says that compliance to their tax is "voluntary" - 26 CFR
Ch. 1(4-2-03 Edition)
"Your income tax is a 100% voluntary tax, and your liquor tax is a
100% enforced tax. The situation is as different as night and day." Dwight E. Avis. Head of Alcohol and Tobacco Tax Division. Bureau of
Internal Revenue.
"The only difference between a tax man and a taxidermist is
that the taxidermist leaves the skin." - Mark Twain
"I am a most unhappy man. I have unwittingly ruined my country. A
great industrial nation is now controlled by its system of credit. We
are no longer a government by free opinion, no longer a government
by conviction and the voter of the majority, but a government by the
opinion and duress of a small group of dominant men." President
Woodrow Wilson 1919.
"People have been brainwashed. People have been told that you need
this income tax system to fund government, which is absolutely
ridiculous. My question is that if that is true, then how did we fund
government from 1776 to 1913" - Peter Gibbons, Tax Attorney
•
•
Paying for schools? As foolish as it is to allow the government to
educate your kids (separation of State and School is vastly more
important than separation of Church and State), property tax
pays form the great majority of schools.
Paying for highways? Tax you pay at the gas pump for gasoline
pays for the highways.
The amount of money the government spends on the military, in
violation of U.S. Constitution, Article. I., Section 8. Clause 12, always
mysteriously equals what the government collects from corporate tax.
"The main purpose of the income tax is not to raise revenue, but to
redistribute wealth and control society." -"It's actually very simple.
Congress tried to enact an income tax in 1894. The Supreme Court
said that was unconstitutional. If the Supreme Court says something
is unconstitutional it's un-unconstitutional. They tried again in 1913
and the Supreme Court said "The 16th Amendment conferred no new
power of taxation". So if they didn't have it then, and they didn't get
it. They don't have it. There is no constitutional basis for tax on the
wages of Americans living and working in the fifty States of the Union.
Period. End of argument." - G. Edward Griffin. Author, Creature From
Jekyll Island.
"In substance, the [Supreme] Court holds that the Sixteenth
Amendment did not empower the Federal Government to levy a new
tax." - New York Times, January 25, 1916
President Ronald Reagan's Blue Ribbon Panel Grace Commission setup
to investigate income tax reported: "100% of what is collected is
absorbed solely on the interest of the federal debt . All individual
income tax revenues are gone before one nickel paid on the services
tax payers collect on the government."
"I believe that in both spirit and substance our tax system has become
un-American. Death and taxes may be inevitable. But unjust taxes
are not." President Ronald Reagan.
The IRS and local County Tax Collector Are Law Breakers,
they Are Criminals committing Fraud:
The income that is a direct tax which is not apportioned amongst the
States as demanded by the U.S. Constitution, making the income tax
and property taxes, and sales tax and every other tax levied against
citizens of the U.S. unconstitutional and therefore unlawful.
Apportioned = to divide equally amongst the people.
16th Amendment not Ratified
In his declaration Knox claims the following States properly ratified the
16th: Alabama, Kentucky, South Carolina, Illinois, Mississippi,
Oklahoma, Maryland, Georgia, Texas, Ohio, Idaho, Oregon,
Washington, California, Montana, Indiana, Nevada, North Carolina,
Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado, North Dakota, Michigan, Iowa, Missouri,
Mane, Tennessee, Arkansas, Wisconsin, New York, South Dakota,
Arizona, Minnesota, Louisiana, Delaware, and Wyoming.
Knox claimed that it appeared that New Jersey and New Mexico had
approved the 16th.
NOTE Knox, claimed that he had official documents on file for all of
these States, however, clearly there were no documents for
Minnesota.
Again, the incorporation of the terms of the proposed amendment in
the ratifying resolution seems in every case merely to have been by
way or recitation.
Furthermore, under the provisions of the Constitution a legislature is
not authorized to alter in any way the amendment proposed by
Congress, the function of the legislature consisting merely in the right
to approve or disapprove the proposed amendment.
Proof is given in a letter to Secretary of State Knox the fact that the
16th Amendment was not properly ratified:
P5: not-withstanding it appears that errors exist in the certified copies
of Resolutions passed by the Legislatures of those States ratifying such
amendment.
P5: 5. The Department has not received a copy of the Resolution
passed by the State of Minnesota.
Resolution P3: It appears from this information that four states
(Connecticut
Resolution P4: New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Utah) have rejected
the amendment. The remaining thirty-eight states have taken action
purporting to ratify the amendment, the State of Arkansas being one
of these states. Although the Governor of Arkansas has previously
notified the Department that the legislature of that state had refused
to ratify the amendment…
Resolution P4: In all cases in which the legislature appear to have
acted favorably upon the proposed amendment, either the Governor or
some other state official has transmitted to the Department a certified
copy of the resolution passed by the particular legislature, except in
the case of Minnesota.
Alabama: “Approved”. Doesn’t appear whether Governor signed.
Kentucky: Not signed by Governor.
Illinois: Not signed by Governor
Resolution P4/5:
Not “Adopted” only signed by Governors of:
Oklahoma, Texas, Montana, Indiana, Nebraska, Colorado, North
Dakota, Iowa, New Jersey, New Mexico
Not signed by Governor:
Maryland, Georgia, Ohio, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, California, North
Carolina, Missouri, Wisconsin, New York, South Dakota, Delaware
Attested by Governor:
Michigan
Governor vetoed-Governor informed Secretary of State legislature had
failed to pass resolution: Arkansas
No resolution (Secretary of Governor merely says there is a
resolution):
Minnesota
It will be observed from the above record that the Governor of the
State of Arkansas vetoed the resolution passed by the legislature of
that State.
LFL NOTE: Law must be signed into law by the Governor / President
before it is law: Article I, Section 7: “Every Bill which shall have
passed the House of Representatives and the Senate, shall, before it
become a Law, be presented to the President of the United States; If
he approve he shall sign it, but if not he shall return it”
Page 6: It is to be noted that the Kentucky legislature passed a
resolution ratifying the proposed 16th Amendment before a copy of
the resolution of Congress was transmitted to that body by the
Governor and that when the Governor reserved the certified copy of
the Joint Resolution of Congress from the Secretary of State and
transmitted it to the legislature, the latter refused to act on it.
Errors in Resolutions of State Legislature in quoting the Proposed 16th
Amendment
In the certified copies of the resolution passed by the legislature of the
several state ratifying the proposed 16th amendment, it appears that
only four of these resolutions (those submitted by Arizona, North
Dakota, Tennessee and New Mexico) have quoted absolutely
accurately and correctly the 16th amendment as proposed by
Congress.
P7:
Minnesota, it is to be remembered, did not transmit to the Department
a copy of the resolution passed by the legislature of that state.
The resolutions passed by twenty-two states contain errors only of
capitalization or punctuation, or both, while those of eleven states
contain errors in the wording.
LFL NOTE: the letter then goes attempting to justify ratification by
showing errors in the 14th and 15th Amendment ratification process.
Actually providing an excellent source of information invalidating the
14th Amendment.
P15: Furthermore, under the provisions of the Constitution a
legislature is not authorized to alter in any way the amendment
proposed by Congress,
P16: For these reasons it is believed that the Secretary of State should
in the present instance include in his declaration announcing the
adoption of the 16th amendment to the Constitution of the States
referred to notwithstanding it appears that errors exist in certified
copies of Resolutions passed by the Legislature of those States
ratifying such amendment.