Court Rules Taxpayers Can Sue IRS For Violating Constitutional Rights On Data Collection

The First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals just issued a ruling that taxpayers will be able to take the IRS to court for violating their rights with data collection.

The court ruled that the U.S. District Court for the District of New Hampshire was wrong to dismiss the court challenge based on an alleged lack of jurisdiction.

Until now, the IRS has prevented federal courts from allowing any significant challenge to the IRS’ data-collection practices.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit has unanimously ruled in Harper v. Rettig that taxpayer James Harper can take the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to federal court for gathering private financial information about his use of virtual currency from third-party exchanges without a lawful subpoena.

IRS has, until now, successfully prevented federal courts from asserting jurisdiction over a significant constitutional challenge to the agency’s unlawful data-collection practices. The First Circuit ruled that the U.S. District Court for the District of New Hampshire erred in its March 2021 decision granting IRS’s motion to dismiss Mr. Harper’s Fourth and Fifth Amendment challenge based on an alleged lack of jurisdiction. The district court did not have the benefit of the Supreme Court’s May 2021 decision in CIC Services, LLC v. IRS, which concluded that the Anti-Injunction Act (AIA) does not prohibit a suit “seeking to set aside an information-reporting requirement that is backed by both civil tax penalties and criminal penalties.” Mr. Harper’s suit, which seeks to set aside IRS’s illegal information gathering, is likewise not a suit brought to enjoin a tax’s assessment or collection, so it is not subject to the AIA’s limits on court jurisdiction.

Judge Kermit Lipez, writing for the majority, rejects IRS’s argument that the AIA bars Mr. Harper’s suit because it seeks to restrain activities related to the assessment or collection of taxes. He notes that CIC Services provides clarity that “information gathering” is a “phase of tax administration procedure that occurs before assessment [or] collection.” Judge Lipez concludes that since IRS’s activities against Mr. Harper “clearly fall within the category of information gathering … the [AIA] is not an applicable exception to the United States’ waiver of sovereign immunity.” Indeed, as the Supreme Court explained in CIC Services, where, as here, there is no “tax penalty” at issue, then the case is a “cinch,” and “the suit c[an] proceed.”

Mr. Harper had contracted with third-party virtual currency exchanges to protect his private information against unlawful government intrusion. Despite his efforts to ensure his records were properly safeguarded, IRS took the data of Mr. Harper and thousands of other cryptocurrency holders from virtual-currency exchanges without reasonable suspicion and without providing a pre-data-collection notice and opportunity to contest IRS’s dragnet operation. In ruling that the district court has subject-matter jurisdiction, the First Circuit has ensured that the IRS can be held accountable for this violation of Harper’s Fourth and Fifth Amendment constitutional rights.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/08/court-rules-taxpayers-can-sue-irs-violating-constitutional-rights-data-collection/

Details about assassination of ‘Russian world’ ideologue’s daughter revealed

The bomb that killed Darya Dugina was planted on the underside of the car, investigators said

“It has already been established that the explosive was planted under the bottom of the car on the driver's side. Darya Dugina, who was driving, was killed on impact,” the agency said, reiterating that investigators believe the attack to have been premeditated and to be a contract job.

https://www.rt.com/russia/561249-dugin-assasination-bomb-details/

Zelensky Warns Of 'Nastier' Phase Of War As Russia Says Dugin Car Bombing Was A 'Contract Killing'

Update1050ET: Ukraine is bracing for a likely escalation in Russian attacks following last night's killing of the daughter of Alexander Dugin - Darya Dugina - by what looked to be a car bomb as she as driving his car home from an event. Based on the details that emerged, many believe it was an assassination attempt on the prominent but deeply controversial Russian political commentator and philosopher himself.

Contrary to current exaggerated Western mainstream headlines referring to him as "Putin's brain" - there's no clear evidence that Dugin and Putin have ever even met (much less a photograph of the two together or in the same room, which we've yet to find), though the influence of Dugin's thought on certain Russian political circles is clear. He's long been central to developing the so-called 'Russian world' ideology, but his influence on actual Kremlin policy circles has been marginal at best especially since 2014, given he's been much more hawkish and maximalist when it comes to the Ukraine crisis, at times uncomfortably so for Russia's political leadership.

On Sunday, Russia's Investigative Committee said in an official statement that it has opened a murder investigation following a car bomb being detonated under Alexander Dugin's vehicle, which only his daughter Darya was driving at the time (eyewitnesses say he switched cars at the last minute when returning from an event).

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/daughter-putin-ally-reportedly-killed-assassination-attempt

Alabama City Council Abolishes Entire Police Department Due to Racist Texts by Officers

Two months after an officer in Vincent, Alabama sent a coworker a text message containing racially charged language, the city council moved Thursday to temporarily disband the police department.

An unnamed officer allegedly sent a “pregnant slave” joke via text message to a colleague in June, according to AL.com.

Text messages exchanged in June caused an uproar when they were made public in late July.

Vincent’s mayor James Latimer stated the city couldn’t remove police personnel who had exchanged racist text messages because of legal concerns. As a result, the city abolished its entire police force.

“Based on our personnel policies, we cannot terminate them,” Latimer said.

According to Latimer and the city attorney, a city employee has to receive two written complaints and a verbal warning before being terminated.

More from Al.com:

In the session, Latimer said that dissolving the police department was “the only way” the city could stop paying the officers, explaining that the officers would then be laid off and not fired for cause. He added the text message issue had uncovered a “flaw” in the personnel policy and the policy would need to be amended.

The ordinance abolishing the Vincent Police Department was amended to add the word “temporarily” at the request of Council Member Corey Abrams.

The dissolution of the police department will become official five days after the ordinance is finalized, which should happen Friday, Latimer said. He said the city plans to contract dedicated police services with the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office for the next year at least, with the expectation that it would reestablish its own police force in the future.

According to Crime Grade, Vincent, Alabama is in the 40th percentile for safety, meaning 60% of cities are safer and 40% of cities are more dangerous. Vincent’s crime rate is slightly higher than the average US city.

“Your chance of being a victim of crime in Vincent may be as high as 1 in 24 in the south neighborhoods, or as low as 1 in 47 in the east part of the city,” according to the outlet.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/08/alabama-city-council-abolishes-entire-police-department-due-alleged-racist-texts-officers/

JPMorgan Chase CEO: Bank Took TARP, 'Because We Were Asked to' by Treasury Secretary

Jamie Dimon, the president and CEO of JPMorgan Chase, told the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee last week that his bank took Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) funds back in 2008 only “because we were asked to” by the Treasury Secretary.

Dimon got into a verbal tussle with a liberal Democratic member of the committee, Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), about how JPMorgan Chase came to take federal TARP money, during testimony at a committee hearing last Wednesday on Capitol Hill.

Merkley suggested that JPMorgan Chase, one of the world’s biggest banks, had benefitted from “half-a-trillion dollars in low-cost federal loans” – including “$25 billion in TARP funds” and “untold billions indirectly through the bailout of AIG that helped address your massive exposure in repurchase agreements and derivatives.”

But Dimon was quick to fire back, labeling Merkley’s assertions as “factually wrong.”

“I think you were misinformed,” Dimon said. “And I think that misinformation is leading to a lot of the problems we’re having today.

“JP Morgan took TARP because we were asked to by the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States of America. Put the FDIC in the room; the head of the New York Fed, Tim Geithner; chairman of the Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke.

He added: “We did not, at that point, need TARP. We were asked to, because we were told, I think correctly so, that if the nine banks there, and some may have needed it, take this TARP, we can get it into all these other banks and stop the system from going down.”

https://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/jpmorgan-chase-ceo-bank-took-tarp-because-we-were-asked-treasury-secretary

Terrorists, White Helmets prepare false flag in Idlib to accuse Russia — Defense Ministry

According to the deputy head of the Russian Center for the Reconciliation of Warring Parties in Syria Oleg Yegorov, they want to accuse the Russian Aerospace Forces and the Syrian army of indiscriminate strikes on civilian infrastructure and residential areas

MOSCOW, August 19. /TASS/. Terrorists from Jabhat al-Nusra (outlawed in Russia) and the White Helmets are plotting a false-flag scheme in the Syrian province of Idlib to accuse the Russian Aerospace Forces and the Syrian army of indiscriminate strikes on civilian infrastructure and residential areas, Major General Oleg Yegorov, deputy head of the Russian Center for Reconciliation of the Opposing Parties in Syria, told a briefing on Friday.

"According to information received by the Russian reconciliation center, militants from the terrorist group Jabhat al-Nusra together with representatives of the pseudo-humanitarian organization White Helmets plan a fake video in the settlements of Ariha and Jisr al-Shughur in Idlib province to accuse the Russian Aerospace Forces and Syrian government troops of indiscriminate strikes on civilian infrastructure and residential areas," he said.

According to him, five shelling episodes from the positions of Jabhat al-Nusra terrorist group were recorded in Idlib de-escalation zone in the past 24 hours. Aleppo province came under fire one time, while Idlib and Latakia provinces were shelled twice.

"In Aleppo province, a Syrian serviceman was wounded when terrorists used small arms to fire from the Tekad area at positions of government forces near Basratun settlement," Yegorov said.

https://tass.com/defense/1496261

Russia to submit evidence of Kiev’s chemical terrorism to OPCW - top brass

Russian troops on a mission near Vasilyevka in the Zaporozhye Region had been hospitalized with signs of severe poisoning on July 31

Russia is preparing official confirmation of tests taken from Russian troops hospitalized with signs of severe poisoning upon completing their mission in the Zaporozhye Region for sending to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), the Russian Defense Ministry said on Saturday.

"The evidence of the Kiev regime’s chemical terrorism will soon be submitted to the OPCW," the ministry said in a statement.

Russia’s top brass reported earlier on Saturday that Russian troops on a mission near Vasilyevka in the Zaporozhye Region had been hospitalized with signs of severe poisoning on July 31. Tests showed botulinum toxin type B was used against them. A thorough analysis by experts from a St. Petersburg-based military medicine research center confirmed the presence of this highly-toxic man-made chemical.

https://tass.com/defense/1496261

Whose Grain Is Being Shipped from Ukraine? America’s GMO Agribusiness Giants to Take Control of Ukraine Farmland

A great humanitarian uproar in recent weeks demanding the safe shipping of Ukrainian grain to ease a hunger crisis in Africa and elsewhere is deceptive on many levels.

Not the least is who owns the land on which the grain is grown and whether that grain is actually illegal GMO patented corn and other grains. A corrupt Zelenskyy regime has quietly made deals with the major GMO agribusiness companies in the West who have been stealthily taking control of some of the world’s most productive “black earth” farmland.

The 2014 CIA Coup

In February 2014 a US Government-backed coup d’etat forced the elected president of Ukraine to flee for his life to Russia. In December 2013 President Viktor Yanukovych had announced following months of debate that Ukraine would join the Russian Eurasian Economic Union on promise of a $15 billion Russian purchase of Ukraine state debt and 33% reduction in cost of imported Russian gas.

The competing offer had been a paltry “associate membership” in the EU tied to Ukraine acceptance of a draconian IMF and World Bank loan package that would force the privatization of Ukraine’s invaluable agriculture land, allow planting GMO crops, as well as imposing severe pension cuts and social austerity. In return for a $17 billion IMF loan, Ukraine would also have to raise personal income taxes by as much as 66% and to pay 50% more for natural gas. Workers would have to work ten years longer to get pensions. The aim was to open Ukraine to “foreign investment.” The usual IMF rape of the economy on behalf of globalist corporate interests.

A key provision of the US and IMF demands on the post-coup government of US-picked Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk , a leader of the CIA-backed Maiden protests against Yanukovych, was to finally open Ukraine’s rich agriculture land to foreign Agribusiness giants, above all GMO giants including Monsanto and DuPont. Three of the Yatsenyuk cabinet , including the key Finance and Economy ministers, were foreign nationals, dictated to Kiev by the US State Department’s Victoria Nuland and then-Vice President Joe Biden. The Washington-imposed IMF loan conditions required that Ukraine also reverse its ban on genetically engineered crops, and enable private corporations like Monsanto to plant its GMO seeds and spray the fields with Monsanto’s Roundup.

Since Ukraine declared independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, keeping control of Ukraine’s precious “black earth” land has been one of the most heated issues in national politics. Recent polls show 79% of Ukrainians want to retin control of their land from foreign takeover. Ukraine, as southern Russia, is home to valuable black earth or chernozems, a dark, humus-rich soil that is very productive and needs little artificial fertilizer.

2001 Moratorium

A 2001 Ukraine law imposed a moratorium on private sale of farmland to larger companies or foreign investors. The moratorium was to halt buy up by corrupt Ukrainian oligarchs and their leasing to foreign agribusiness of the rich farmlands. By then Monsanto and other Western agribusiness had made significant inroads into Ukraine.

When Ukraine left the Soviet Union in 1991, farmers who had worked on the Soviet collective farms were each given small plots of the land. To prevent sale of the plots to hungry foreign agribusiness, the 2001 moratorium was voted. Seven million Ukrainian farmers owned small plots totaling some 79 million acres. The remaining 25 million acres were owned by the state. Cultivation of GMO crops was strictly illegal.

https://www.globalresearch.ca/whose-grain-being-shipped-from-ukraine/5790604

https://twitter.com/najimbenine/status/1561409823211921408