Tax Lawyer's Blog

I wonder what percentage of fanatical anti-abortion activists are also tax protesters?

My guess is its much greater than the national average.

But why?

Scott P. Roeder is being held without bail on first degree murder charges for shooting to death abortion doctor George Tiller.

According to Little Green Footballs (LGF), prior to his career as an anti-abortion crusader, Mr. Roeder was a “sovereign citizen” tax protester who had violated his parole by not filing tax returns and refusing to provide his social security number to his employer:

The sovereign citizen movement is a network of American litigants who claim to be “sovereign citizens”; that is, people who claim to have certain rights under English common law and to be unaccountable to the federal government.

The litigants advance this concept in opposition to “federal citizens” who, they believe, have unknowingly forfeited their rights by accepting some aspect of federal law.

Back to my opening question:

What similarities are there between a radical pro-life activist (i.e., one who believes abortion providers are committing murder and should be stopped by any means necessary) and a tax protester (i.e., one who believes that the taxation of wages is illegal and unconstitutional)?

LGF, in a brief account of the genesis of the sovereign identity movement, reveals a possible answer:

[The] “sovereign citizen” concept originated in the Posse Comitatus movement as a teaching of Christian Identity minister William P. Gale. It has gone on to influence the tax protester movement, the Christian Patriot movement and the Redemption movement.

Gale identified the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution as the act that converted sovereign citizens into federal citizens, but other commentators have identified other acts, including the Uniform Commercial Code,[2] the Emergency Banking Act,[2] the Zone Improvement Plan and the supposed suppression of the Titles of Nobility Amendment.

Taxes, Birth Control and Reproduction

Expenditures made for birth control pills and legal abortions are tax deductible.

Expenditures made for maternity clothes and baby diapers are not.

Financial outlays made for the following fertility enhancement procedures are tax deductible:

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