So the Ninth Circuit (Judges Marsha Berzon and Morgan Christen and District Judge Frederic Block (E.D.N.Y.)) held Monday in U.S. v. Bowman:
Appellant Michael Bowman appeals his conviction on four counts of willful failure to file a tax return …. Bowman argues that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act … required the dismissal of the operative indictment against him because of his religious belief that he must not contribute money used to facilitate abortions….
Both this Circuit and the United States Supreme Court have repeatedly rejected the proposition that a taxpayer may withhold tax money owed because taxes support expenditures the taxpayer finds objectionable: "Because the broad public interest in maintaining a sound tax system is of such a high order, religious belief in conflict with the payment of taxes affords no basis for resisting the tax." United States v. Lee (1982); Hernandez v. Comm'r (1989) ("[E]ven a substantial burden would be justified by the 'broad public interest in maintaining a sound tax system,' free of 'myriad exceptions flowing from a wide variety of religious beliefs.'") (citing Lee).
