Charles Merrill Refuses to Pay Taxes Until Same-Sex Marriage Legalized

Charles Merrill, who is resisting taxes in protest against the government’s disfavored treatment of same-sex marriage, has taken his battle to court.

According to a press release, Merrill is challenging “the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) based on the 1st Amendment Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution. He objects to not getting all the same benefits as other married couples — 1,138 of them — under a discriminatory tax code.”

Merrill argues that “DOMA is in violation of the Establishment Clause under any of the three tests the Supreme Court has created: first, under the Lemon test. DOMA was motivated by a religious purpose, and its effect has been to unconstitutionally establish religion. Next, under the endorsement test, DOMA’s purpose and effect were both the endorsement of one religious view to the exclusion of all others. Finally, under the coercion test, DOMA unconstitutionally compels the acceptance of a specific religious belief.”

Meanwhile, in Canada, anti-abortion tax resister David Little suffered a setback in his legal battle when the New Brunswick Court of Queen’s Bench denied his appeal of his convictions on tax charges.

Little represented himself in a Fredericton court on where he argued his conviction on three counts of not paying his income taxes should be overturned because it violates his religious beliefs under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

In his two-and-a-half hour submission before Judge Hugh McLellan, Little included quotes from the Bible and his strong belief that abortion is “an abomination.”

Twice the judge interrupted, saying Little should stick to legal arguments, not moral, religious or political ones.

McLellan then ruled that despite Little’s intense beliefs, he did not show any legal error by the judge who convicted him and dismissed the appeal.

Little says he plans to appeal to the Supreme Court.