Some links from here and there:
- YouTuber Alexis Buschmann has started to offer spoken-word interpretations of some of NWTRCC’s introductory war tax resistance material on her video blog. This could be a useful resource for people who prefer to get their information in the podcast/audiobook style rather than through text. Here’s a sample:
- American anti-abortion tax resister Michael Bowman continues his streak of courtroom luck. This time, a hung jury foiled the government’s attempt to convict him of misdemeanor charges of failure to file. (In an earlier victory, the court threw out an additional charge of felony tax evasion.) The government may decide to refile the misdemeanor charges and try again. “They put me on the stand,” said Bowman, “they know what kind of witness I am. And round two, they haven’t seen anything yet; I’ve learned.”
- Bowman’s attorney tried at one point to advance the argument that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act requires the government to accommodate Bowman’s sincere religious objection to paying for abortion with his taxes. Although the courts have rejected such arguments in the past with reference to war tax resisters, the Supreme Court’s subsequent Hobby Lobby ruling seemed to possibly open the door to reconsidering this. The trial court disagreed.
- War tax resisters have also considered using Hobby Lobby as a foot-in-the-door in this way.
- American war tax resister and tireless activist Frances Crowe has died at age 100:
- Tax resisters in Beni (Democratic Republic of the Congo), who are protesting the government’s inability to provide security to residents of the war-torn region, are more formally organizing under the banner Nipe Amani Nami nilipe Ushuru na Kodi (Give Me Peace and I’ll Give You Taxes).
- Automated traffic ticket camera resistance continues around the world, with recent attacks on the machines in France, Italy, and Germany.
