ourt sets rules
de |or IRS activities
IRS not bound by privacy law
THE BATTALION
THURSDAY, APRIL 22, 1976
Page 5
Bank records can he seized
Come To Diamond Country
San key Park Diamond Salon
d some.
: leaiyt®; Associated Press
secret] WASHINGTON — Taxpayers
?eking constitutional protection
om Internal Revenue Service
vinglai » en ts sufiered a double-barreled
1- Kfeat in the Supreme Court Wed-
to brim May.
ian prai The court ruled 7 to 1 that a tax-
ayer under investigation is notenti-
jed to the complete statement of
anstitutional rights that must be
a l iven to a criminal suspect already in
M>dy.
I 1 In a separate decision, the justices
uled 8 to 0 that a taxpayer or his
. wr j[| e iwler may be required to surrender
■nt ixl'eturn papers prepared by the
M be Bayer’s accountant. They said this
>c | ;1 oes not violate the constitutional
jrivilege against self-incrimination.
)\v sent! I another decision with tax impli-
ations, the court ruled 6 to 2 that it
notes [jconstitutional to subpoena an indi-
ve theaB^'s hank records for use as evi-
1^..lencc against him in his trial. The
ase arose out of “moonshining”
iV t ] 1( barges involving whisky on which
axes had not been paid.
)( , r . On an unrelated issue, the justices
I uled 5 to 3 that government per-
: lorn el files are not protected under
he Freedom of Information Act un-
ess disclosure would be “a clearly
inw hi ranted invasion of personal
service tl .1 » *
jntacy.
llt<11 Bhe Freedom of Information Act
involved efforts of law review
writers at New York University to
ibtkin records of proceedings under
l "7 the Air Force Academy honor and
f ed ms codes.
j ,s re ?Bh e U.S. Circuit Court in New
York ordered the records handed
over to a federal judge for editing so
that they would not identify indi
vidual cadets. They were not to be
re ava jj a bi e to wr iters unless
B judge was satisfied that they did
Bd nva de privacy.
B^e Supreme Court said this was
“a (workable compromise” between
individual privacy and the right of
access to government information,
s ianO"M ust j c e John Paul Stevens took
part only in the moonshine whisky
case, which was the first on which he
' 1 . heard arguments after his appoint
ment in December. The other cases
mimic were ar g ue( J before he became a
I' the member of the court,
ite collM
nfer Senator turns
;ervices. w
roller 4ft 1 • . •
stocks into coins
avelitaB Associated Press
eSiB WASHINGTON Sen ' John V '
Tunney, D-Calif., has converted
f. most of his stock holdings into old
e or to , ° n , r
s deans coins to avoid any conflicts ot
interest, a spokeswoman says,
is ftTunney majored in anthropology
in college and has long been in-
(i them Crested in antiquities. He bought 60
niccess to 70 Roman coins -
gradel^Bfhe coins were struck in the re-
1, univi publican period, which predated the
custody, Roman Empire, and represent a
wkerwi “significant investment,” she said,
[inaneialf The spokeswoman declined to put
laintainei a value on the coins,
sionals. §
The decision on questioning of tax
suspects arose from what IRS agents
said was a “friendly” talk with Alvin
A. Beckwith, Jr. of Washington,
D.C., about his income tax liability.
Following usual IRS practice, the
agents did not take Beckwith into
custody and gave him only a partial
warning of his rights. They told him
he could not be compelled to in
criminate himself, that his answers
might be used against him and that
he could seek the advice of an attor
ney before answering.
The court, in an opinion by Chief
Justice Warren E. Burger, said non
custodial interrogation might be
coercive in some cases, but this
question would have to be decided
on an individual basis.
Justice William J. Brennan, Jr.
dissented, saying that “the practical
compulsion to respond” when an
IRS agent asks a person about his tax
returns is equal to the pressure of
being interrogated in custody.
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The govern
ment has the right to seize or study
the records of your bank account and
you don’t have a constitutional right
to know that federal agents are doing
so, the Supreme Court says.
And in another privacy case, the
court handed down a decision that
could mean millions of government
personnel and medical files will now
be open to limited public scrutiny.
In a 7 to 2 decision on Wednesday,
the court said bank customers have
no right to contest government sub
poenas of their records because the
records belong to the bank.
A bank’s customers, the justices
said, have “no legitimate expectation
of privacy” in bank transactions that
naturally involve bank employes
who might tell the government what
the records contain.
Since the customer should not
think his account is private, the court
said, he has no right to expect that
the bank or the government will tell
him if his account records have been
seized or examined.
Justice Lewis F. Powell, writing
the decision for the majority, said
the bank’s failure to notify the cus
tomer constitutes “a neglect without
legal consequences, however unat
tractive it may be.”
Checks, deposit slips and other
records the government requires
banks to keep “are not confidential
communications but negotiable in
struments to be used in commercial
transactions,” Powell wrote. He said
the documents only contain informa
tion the customer has voluntarily al
lowed to be exposed to banks and
their employes.
“The depositor takes the risk, in
revealing his affairs to another, that
the information will be conveyed by
that person to the government,” the
majority decision said.
The ruling reversed a decision by
the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Ap
peals, which suppressed bank rec
ords of Mitchell Miller of Macon,
Ga., tried for operating an illegal
whiskey still and other charges.
In the other case involving per-
Robber really wanted to go to jail
lent invt
tv sayinf
ic transo
carry pn
Associated Press
ORLANDO, Fla. — It wasn’t that
Wilbur John Hunter wanted to rob
the bank when he passed a teller a
note demanding money. He simply
wanted to go to jail where he could
get a meal and shelter.
Hunter’s court-appointed attor
ney explained to the court Thursday
that the gray-haired, homeless wan
derer from Spring Lake Heights,
N.J., had told about seeking help
earlier this year from several agen
cies in Daytona Beach.
“But they told him he was too old
or too young, not a drug addict, not
an alcoholic . . . and couldn’t qual
ify,” the lawyer, James Shepard said.
“It seems that with all the programs
available, he would fall into some
category. ”
When the Landmark Bank met
the 52-year-old Hunter’s written
demand for money Tuesday, he po
litely took the envelope with $1,800
and then took a seat in the bank
lobby to await police.
Before police arrived, he returned
the envelope and money to teller
Madelyn Weston saying, “You ought
to keep this. It will mess up your
accounting.”
It wasn t the first time Hunter,
unarmed, has pvdled an alleged rob
bery and then waited for police to
escort him to jail where he knew a
bed and food awaited, officers said.
He did it April 8 in Osceola
County, but the state attorney’s of
fice ordered the charge dismissed
because the specific elements of the
crime of robbery were missing.
That put Hunter back on the
streets where he wandered about
the area for almost a week without
food, money or shelter, his lawyer
said.
Hunter’s caper Tuesday was suc
cessful — in a way. He is in the
Orange County Jail because he
couldn’t put up a $25,000 bond for
the federal bank robbery charge.
+ /5SK +
FALSTAFF
intr
(P'vttniufn
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TIGER TEAGUE
CONGRESSMAN
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Friday, April 23
Ramada Inn Ballroom
Ad paid tor by
TEAGUE FOR CONGRESS COMMITTEE
Dr. James R. Gill, Treasurer
sonal privacy, the court ruled that
records of honor code enforcement
by military academies may not be
withheld from the public on the
grounds that the privacy of cadets or
former cadets may be infringed.
In a 5 to 3 ruling that could open
millions of government personnel
and medical files, the court said fed
eral law protecting secrecy of such
files applies only if the government
can prove disclosure would be a
“clearly unwarranted invasion of
personal privacy.”
The decision broadened the
Freedom of Information Act.
Justice Harry A. Blackmun said in
his dissent “it is almost inconceiva
ble” that the court appeared willing
to allow public disclosure of medical
files “and thereby open to the public
what has been recognized as almost
the essence of ultimate privacy.
Justice John Paul Stevens, who
had not been appointed when the
court heard arguments on the case in
October, did not vote.
In other decisions Wednesday,
the Court ruled 7 to 1 that a person
who is suspected of tax evasion but is
not under arrest is not entitled to be
advised of his constitutional rights
before Internal Revenue Service
Agents can question him. And the
justices voted 8 to 0 that targets of
federal criminal probes cannot es
cape subpoenas for financial records
by giving the data to their lawyers.
21 3 S. MAIN
\ '.I//.
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