The first amendment allows folks to say or print whatever they want, with certain exceptions. The first amendment applies to members of the House Ways and Means Committee, doesn’t it? So unless there’s a specific exception in the law that prevents them from exercising free speech in this case, “chapter and verse” consists of the first amendment.
If you believe such an exception exists, perhaps you could provide chapter and verse?
We can set the law aside for a moment and admit that, even if it’s not illegal for the House to release the tax returns of a (now) private citizen, doing so upends decades of custom.
I wonder why anyone would decide to upend decades of custom when it comes to Trump’s returns?
There actually is. As I cited above, there’s a US code that restricts the disclosure of tax information. Tax returns are public records but, naturally, there’s an interest in controlling such disclosures.
That said, there are exceptions carved out for certain parties. Like the House Ways and Means Committee for example, to report findings to the full House, by which the information would be publicly disclosed as well. And the current disclosure is being done under the aegis of that exception.
There’s even a bit of precedent for it. As mentioned above, some of Nixon’s records were disclosed via this route, though in his case, it’s very possible he’d have disclosed anyway had he been asked.
I was actually thinking “chapter and verse” (in a metaphorical sense) such as the Privacy Act of 1974, as amended, 5 U.S.C. § 552a. Putting it down to the free speech protections guaranteed by the First Amendment strikes me as sophistry, which a.), I don’t really expect from you, L_H_o_D; and b.), may be the first time I’ve ever used the word “sophistry” in a sentence (knowing me, I’m probably using it wrong, so my reluctance to use it in the past was probably based in good, sound judgement on my part).
With respect, the idea behind “chapter and verse” is that you don’t link to a 2-column, 8-point-font, 14-page document. The “verse” is the specific passage that you think applies.
I am not a constitutional scholar, and while I appreciate these links,
and
I am unable to give them the full analysis in toto that they require.
The former cite gives great latitude to congressional committees, but I’m not clear on how the statute specifically interacts with the committees, the first amendment, and Trump’s returns. The latter is such a terribly vague link that I’m not going to bother with it: give the verse if you’re interested.
As a note:
You may wish to drop such arguments, as you’ll not find them persuasive.
Overall, it is incumbent on folks who think the disclosure IS illegal to show why–not by citing an entire body of law, but by citing the specific passages that are violated by disclosure, and by explaining why the exceptions granted to Congress by the statute don’t apply. Failing such specific cites, and given the first amendment’s broad protections of speech–and especially given the years that this process has wended its way through the courts already and the prevalence of constitutional attorneys in the process–I’m inclined to think that the committee knows exactly what the hell they’re up to and are not committing tax crimes for the lulz.
If the committee is acting illegally, then sure, build a time machine and go back in time and present those arguments before it was too late to do so. But if they’re just violating custom, Trump’s got no leg to stand on.
your last paragraph is why many people told trump it was not a good idea to run for president. that he and his business could not stand up to the scrutiny.
they were correct. his “charitable org.” is gone and his company has been found to be a criminal enterprize.
I’d say he’s winning that gamble so far. For four years, he was the most famous person in the world, and attention is possibly worth even more than money to him. And he’s not doing too bad with money, either. His years as president opened up unprecedented grift possibilities that he’s milking for every penny.
Unless he’s convicted, imprisoned and stripped of all his assets, it will forever look like running for president was a very good idea indeed.
Yup, the ‘phone was already tapped, the children were already followed, and the mail was already read’ by people with the legal authority to not only do it but to act on what they found.
Congress is the one harming itself if they release the information in an illegal/unlawful/unethical/nontraditional and there is nothing there. Trump is only actually hurt if there is a there there. Given that Trump has said that he’d release the information himself but can’t (for reasons we now know were fabricated) how can he be harmed by Congress doing the thing he claims to have wanted to do all along for him?
Unless they aren’t the greatest returns :wipes tears from eyes: that the IRS has ever seen.
So some years Trump, “billionaire”, pays zero dollars of federal income tax. Other years he pays $750.
Congress made the returns public because Trump is a lying bastard. They’ve also released to the public that his income taxes were absolutely NOT under audit, like the lying bastard claimed. They further revealed that the standard audit of the president’s taxes was also not done. Sorry if that rubs anyone the wrong way, but exposing a lying bastard is something that does not keep me up at night. I quite appreciate it.
And the reason that he doesn’t want his taxes release to the public is not what we will make of them, or even what the media will make of them, but what the banks will say when they find that they don’t match the returns that he gave them.
If there are any imied powers at all, there is the idea of congressional oversight. Its a key check on executive power. Having told the executive to execute something, they have to be able to monitor what was or wasn’t done
Yup. I marched in the Women’s March on Washington in January 2017 with a sign specifically about wanting to see Trump’s tax returns. It is normal procedure for every Presidential candidate to make his returns public, and he said he would reveal them if he got elected. And then made up lying excuses for why he didn’t.
I am still really, really tired of the expectation that we all just have to put up with Donald Trump disregarding and misrepresenting facts and standard protocols whenever he feels like it, for whatever shady self-serving reasons he might have, and there’s nothing we can do about it. Demanding to see his tax returns made public, as he promised, is a comparatively very small and overdue form of holding Trump to normal levels of Presidential accountability, but it’s a start.