----- Original Message ----- From: Ken Smith Sent: Friday, January 25, 2002 11:19 PM Subject: 16th Amendment Never Ratified
16th AMENDMENT NEVER RATIFIED
The Sixteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States was
never ratified by a majority of the sovereign States.
This is the Amendment that allegedly entitled the Federal Agent
(government) in the federal territory of Washington, D.C. and their
private collection company, the IRS, to collect "income tax" as falsely
declared to be ratified in February 1913.
After an exhaustive year long search of legislative records in 48
sovereign states (Alaska & Hawaii were not admitted into the Union until
after 1913), Bill Benson wrote his fact findings in The Law That Never
Was, Vols. 1 & 2. He was able to unequivocally prove that the 16th
Amendment was never Constitutionally, properly, or legally ratified. The
only record of the 16th Amendment having been confirmed was a proclamation
made by the Secretary of State Philander Knox on February 25, 1913,
wherein he simply declared it to be "in effect", but never stating it was
lawfully ratified.
Even if the 16th Amendment were properly ratified, according to
Article 1, Section 9 of the Constitution, it has always been
unconstitutional for the U.S. Federal Government to directly tax We the
People in their property, wages, salaries, or earnings. The judges of the
U.S. Supreme Court rejected any claims that the 16th Amendment changed the
constitutional limits on direct taxes in Brushaber v. Union Pacific R.R.
Co., 240 U.S. 1, when they ruled that it "created no new power of
taxation" and that it "did not change the constitutional limitations which
forbid any direct taxation of individuals".
Alleged defects in the ratification of the Income Tax Amendment
According to the investigations of Bill Benson and others, the
following defects were found in the ratification of the Income Tax
Amendment by the 48 states then existing, three-fourths or 36 of which
were needed to ratify it:
01 - Not ratified by state legislature, and so reported
02 - Not ratified by state legislature, but reported as ratified
03 - Missing or incomplete evidence of ratification, but reported as
ratified
04 - Failure of Governor or other official to sign, although required by
State Constitution
05 - Other violation of State Constitution in ratification process
06 - Other procedural irregularity making ratification doubtful
07 - Approval, but with change in wording, accepted as ratification of
original version
08 - Approval, but with change in spelling, accepted as ratification of
original version
09 - Approval, but with change in capitalization, accepted as ratification
of original version
10 - Approval, but with change in punctuation, accepted as ratification of
original version
State
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
Alabama
1
1
1
Arizona
1
1
1
1
Arkansas
1
1
1
1
1
California
1
1
1
1
1
Colorado
1
1
1
1
Connecticut
1
Delaware
1
Florida
1
Georgia
1
1
1
1
1
Idaho
1
1
1
1
1
1
Illinois
1
1
1
Indiana
1
1
1
Iowa
1
1
1
Kansas
1
1
Kentucky
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
Louisiana
1
1
1
1
Maine
1
1
Maryland
1
1
1
Massachusetts
1
1
1
1
Michigan
1
1
1
1
1
Minnesota
1
1
Mississippi
1
1
1
1
1
1
Missouri
1
1
1
1
1
Montana
1
1
1
1
Nebraska
1
1
Nevada
1
1
1
New Hampshire
1
New Jersey
1
1
1
New Mexico
1
1
New York
1
1
1
North Carolina
1
1
North Dakota
1
1
Ohio
1
1
Oklahoma
1
1
1
Oregon
1
1
Pennsylvania
1
Rhode Island
1
South Carolina
1
1
1
1
South Dakota
1
1
1
1
1
Tennessee
1
1
1
1
1
Texas
1
1
1
1
1
1
Utah
1
Vermont
1
1
1
1
1
Virginia
1
Washington
1
1
1
1
1
West Virginia
1
1
1
Wisconsin
1
1
1
Wyoming
1
1
1
1
1
1
Total
7
3
9
6
25
29
22
1
31
27
Additional
7
3
7
5
16
6
2
0
2
0
Accumulated
7
10
17
22
38
44
46
46
48
48
In the above table, the line "Additional" are the number of states for which
that defect is in addition to previously indicated defects, and "Accumulated" is a
running total of states with defects, from Defect 01 through 10.
Since 36 states were required to ratify, the failure of 13 to ratify would be
fatal to the amendment, and this occurs within the first three defects, arguably the
most serious. Even if we were to ignore defects of spelling, capitalization, and
punctuation, we would still have only two states which successfully ratified.
Note that in the above we are counting Ohio as a state, even though it was not
admitted into the Union until 1953 (retroactively, which is ex post facto, and
unconstitutional). We are not counting the failure to designate the Income Tax
Amendment as the "XVII" amendment, since there was arguably a 13th Amendment that was
ratified but which is not published in official copies of the Constitution with
Amendments, and the number is not necessarily part of the amendment (It wasn't part of
the first 10.).
The authority usually cited for the criticality of ratification without errors
of spelling, capitalization, or punctuation, is from DOCUMENT NO. 97-120, of the 97TH
CONGRESS, 1st Session, entitled How Our Laws Are Made, written by Edward F. Willett,
Jr. Esq., Law Revision Counsel of the United States House of Representatives, in which
the comparable exactitude in which bills must be concurred under federal legislative
rules is detailed:
. . Each amendment must be inserted in precisely the proper place in the bill,
with the spelling and punctuation exactly the same as it was adopted by the House.
Obviously, it is extremely important that the Senate receive a copy of the bill in the
precise form in which it passed the House. The preparation of such a copy is the
function of the enrolling clerk. (at 34) (emphasis added)
When the bill has been agreed to in identical form by both bodies (either
without amendment by the Senate, or by House concurrence in the Senate amendments, or
by agreement in both bodies to the conference report) a copy of the bill is enrolled
for presentation to the President.
The preparation of the enrolled bill is a painstaking and important task since
it must reflect precisely the effect of all amendments, either by deletion,
substitution, or addition, agreed to by both bodies. The enrolling clerk... must
prepare meticulously the final form of the bill, as it was agreed to by both Houses,
for presentation to the President... each (amendment) must be set out in the
enrollment exactly as agreed to, and all punctuation must be in accord with the action
taken. (at 45) (emphasis added)
It should be noted that in his report on ratifications of the Income Tax
Amendment to then Secretary of State Philander Knox, the Solicitor of the Department
of State, recognized many of the defects of wording, spelling, capitalization, and
punctuation, although he seemed ignorant of the constitutional and procedural defects
at the state level. He also pointed out similar defects in the ratifications of the
14th and 15th Amendments. Therefore, Knox had plenty of clues to the problems in the
ratifications, sufficient to justify that he inquire into the matter further and
demand corrective action by the states. Because he failed to do so means that we now
have adopted and enforced legislation for more than 80 years that is plainly
unconstitutional, requiring not only that it be repealed, but that all the funds
collected be refunded.
The states could, of course, re-ratify the Income Tax Amendment, but they could
not do so retroactively. That would allow re-enactment of the Internal Revenue Code,
and re-issuance of all the supporting regulations, but none of them could apply to the
period prior to proper ratification of the amendment and due notices of the
regulations.
Readers are invited to independently confirm or refute these results and to
similarly investigate the ratifications of other constitutional amendments, both at
the federal and state levels, and to issue similar reports on what they find.
Reference:
Bill Benson, The Law That Never Was: The fraud of the 16th Amendment and
personal Income Tax.
Copyright Chris Hansen
By: Chris Hansen, 858-538-6607, [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Last revision: November 13, 2001 07:56 PM
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