Tax Lawyer's Blog

Paul Caron reports that the Senate Judiciary Committee has voted to approve President Obama’s nomination of Mary Smith to head the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) tax division.

Republican members of the Committee adamantly opposed her:

[T]hree Republican senators spoke against Smith, noting that she has never held a job specializing in tax law. She has never written or spoken on tax issues, does not have a specialized degree, and has never taken a continuing legal education course in tax law.

“Tax law is very specialized and it’s certainly not an area where you learn on the job,” committee Ranking Member Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) said.

He argued that Smith could be an embarrassment to the administration, saying, “You should not put people in a job they’re not prepared to handle.”

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) called Smith the “worst choice” that President Barack Obama has made in all of his appointments. Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), the Republican whip, said there must be “thousands of highly experienced tax lawyers who would love to have a job like this.”

Here is how the Obama administration described Ms. Smith upon her nomination in April:

Mary L. Smith currently is a Partner at Schoeman, Updike, Kaufman & Scharf, a women-owned firm.Smith specializes in complex litigation, regulatory practice, and government investigations. Earlier in her career, she served as Senior Litigation Counsel at Tyco International where she managed the securities class action multi-district litigation – one of the largest cases pending in the country. While at Tyco, Smith interacted with the tax department on a range of issues including employee benefits and more strategic issues involving litigation and the company’s corporate reorganization. Prior to Tyco, she was an attorney at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom in Washington, D.C. Prior to her time at Skadden, Smith served in the Clinton White House as Associate Counsel to the President and Associate Director of Policy Planning where she was responsible for a number of policy areas including domestic violence, tax issues, equal pay, Internet gambling, Native American issues, and civil rights issues. She was the highest-ranking Native American in the White House during the Clinton Administration. From 1994-96, Smith served as a trial attorney for the United States Department of Justice Civil Division. Smith graduated from the University of Chicago School of Law, cum laude, where she was a member of the Law Review. Smith clerked for the Hon. R. Lanier Anderson III of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.  She received a B.S., magna cum laude, from Loyola University of Chicago. Smith is a member of the American Bar Association’s Commission on Women in the Profession and a member of the Board of Managers for the Chicago Bar Association. (Emphasis Added)

The paucity of Ms. Smith’s tax qualifications sticks out like a sore thumb.

So why did Obama nominate her?

Well, look more closely at the press release and you will see two “qualities” that are almost as conspicuous as Ms. Smith’s lack of tax law experience:

To wit:

1. Ms. Smith was a partner in women-owned law firm; and
2. She is a Native American.

I ask you, what other reasons could their be for the making of this appointment?

Could it be that Mr. Obama has elevated identity politics above substantive qualifications in making an important government appointment?

Is that good for the country? Is it “change we can believe in” or merely more of the same?

Have the Democrats who voted for Ms. Smith placed her gender and nationality above her experience?

Is that “change” and is it good for America?

Is Closing the Tax Gap Really that Important to President Obama?

In the five months he’s been in office President Obama has delivered several intense speeches about how he intends to close the tax gap, aggressively pursue tax cheats and enforce collection of delinquent debts.

The head of the DOJ’s tax division will, one would assume, be a key player in carrying out those intentions.

The appointment of a person like Ms. Smith, who lacks serious tax qualifications, undermines Mr. Obama’s tax gap tough talk.

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