Law lecture explores the nuanced history of tax resistance in America

Though Judge Learned Hand famously asserted that citizens are entitled to minimize their taxes—“there is not even a patriotic duty to increase one’s taxes”—his ruling actually struck down an illegal tax-evasion scheme, reminding us that America’s stance on tax resistance has always been nuanced, varying with who’s protesting and why. This topic and more will be discussed in the upcoming lecture “America’s Love/Hate Relationship with Tax Protests”, presented by Professor Stephanie H. McMahon, Indiana University Maurer School of Law. This event, the 2025 Harold C. Schott Lecture, will be held at 12:15 pm, July 18, 2025, in Room 170 of the College of Law. CLE: 1 hour of CLE has been approved for Ohio and Kentucky.

Judge Learned Hand once famously declared, “Anyone may so arrange his affairs that his taxes shall be as low as possible; he is not bound to choose that pattern which will best pay the Treasury; there is not even a patriotic duty to increase one’s taxes.” What people often forget is that the statement was made in a judicial opinion in which Judge Hand struck down a taxpayer’s plan that he deemed unlawful tax evasion. The nation’s choice of how to remember Hand’s opinion is indicative of how we choose to see ourselves: We choose to see in our past that the United States condones tax planning, and even unlawful tax evasion, but it is time to reexamine that common belief. At times Americans support tax protest but other times we do not, and at no time can we say there has been a universal feeling one way or the other. Our views of a particular tax protest are wrapped up with what we associate the protest. Therefore, if we like the protesters or the group to which they associated, we support their protest. Today this nuance is often lost with the result that the nation is more accepting of tax cuts and tax protests because arguing against them feels un-American. However, we need to recognize that it is as American to say we want to condemn tax protests as to say we support them.