Supreme Court Won't Hear Wesley Snipes' Appeal

Actor Wesley Snipes is currently serving a three-year prison sentence for failing to file income taxes between 1999-2001, apparently under the belief that he was not legally required to do so. I'll leave it to you to decide if Snipes should be condemned for his crime or celebrated as a heroic tax rebel. Either way, the U.S. Supreme Court today closed the door on the Blade star's last hope for an early release by refusing to take up his appeal.

The Associated Press has additional details here. For a closer look at the anti-income tax movement that helped inspire Snipes' actions, see Brian Doherty's 2004 feature on "16th Amendment rebels."

Comments

[Bill]

You don't stop the Juggernaut by throwing yourself in front of it.

[sage]

If he's wearing that in prison, 1) Ain't nobody messin' with him, or 2) He's never lacking for a date.

Big Bubba and skinny new prisoner are roommates and meet for the first time.

Bubba: You wanna be the husband or the wife?

Skinny: Uh...the husband.

Bubba: Then get over here and suck your wife's dick!

[mofo]

Ahh prision rape humor, the go to joke of the uncreative for over 30 years.

[sage]

Butthurt commenter is butthurt. See? I did it again.

[STEVE SMITH]

HEY, I LIKED IT.

[mofo]

Butthurt? Hardly, just noting that even Rather isnt that uninteresting.

[sage]

Agree that rather is uninteresting. So much so that I don't bother with a reply.

[Fat Crack Ho]

What else did you expect in a a prison-related article? Yo mama jokes?

[skr]

but but but its voluntary.

[Achtung Coma Baby]

Off-topic, but definitely worth hearing about:

I'm currently studying for the MCAT, which I plan to take in August. My instructor the verbal reasoning portion is VERY opinionated and will often get off-topic when reading a passage that has even the most minuscule of a political reference in it.

Last week, we were discussing a passage that references the Anita Hill testimony against Clarence Thomas. My instructor asked the class, "Does anyone here know what this is talking about?" Of course, being filled with 19-22 year old, the class was very ignorant of the historical reference.

My instructor then began to call Clarence Thomas her least favorite Supreme Court justice who happened to replace her favorite justice, Thurgood Marshall. She called Thomas an idiot, and she referenced his opinion against affirmative action by asking "How does he think he got into college?!"

Seeing as how this blog is visited by many lawyers, did any of you have such a shrill LSAT instructor?

[Philosoraptor]

The LSAT is about 800 times easier than the MCAT, so I didn't have an instructor.

Sorry for the cool story.

[Achtung Coma Baby]

So you took both?...medical ethicist?

[Pro Libertate]

No instructor, just me. I wasn't shrill.

[Barely Suppressed Rage]

If you need a class or an instructor to prep for the LSAT, then I would say you need to change your plans and simply not go to law school.

Is the test challenging? Yeah, sure. Buy one of the prep books and study it in the evenings; do the practice tests. I blew the thing out of the water after doing that for a few weeks.

[Fist of Etiquette]

He should be praised for his grounded performance in Demolition Man.

[Episiarch]

"That's who you remind me of: an evil Mr. Rogers!"

[The Gobbler]

Oh man! This reminds me of what I saw on PBS yesterday (it was on in the background). It was Suze Orman's Money Class and because none of her past advice worked out she has resorted to this: telling some guy who filed bankruptcy (but couldn't discharge $100k in student loans) that now that he is no longer able to spend money for pleasure, the new model for his life would be telling himself that he's a really good guy and derive pleasure from that. She sounded just like Mr. Rogers.

What a financial quack!

[sage]

I never followed her stuff before TARP was being thrown around, but she was such a cheerleader for all the government bailouts that she has no credibility in my book.

A fat, ugly cheerleader, I might add.

[Anonymous]

Don't forget orange as a muppet.

[Philosoraptor]

"I'll leave it to you to decide if Snipes should be condemned for his crime or celebrated as a heroic tax rebel."

No third option? Maybe, you know, just someone caught in the complexity of the tax code?

Because if those are the choices, I'm gonna have to side AGAINST a tax protester.

So, really, a dichotomy? Well. All right.

[Richard]

There's no "complexity of the tax code" thing going on. He was stupid enough to get sucked into tax protester gibberish about how the income tax is unconstitutional, none of his money meets the legal definition of "income," etc. Click on the link in the post about the 16th Amendment.

[CrackertyAssCracker]

Ya. The "16'ther" rabbit hole is a deep and scary one. Pretty entertaining though.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Liz Lemon: Wait, your name is Wesley Snipes? That's insane!

Wesley: This is insane? You know what's insane? That the actor is named Wesley Snipes! If you were shown a picture of him and a picture of me, and were asked "who should be named Wesley... Snipes...", you'd pick the pale Englishman every time! Every time, Liz!

[Brandybuck]

I hate tax deniers who pretend there is no law to make people pay taxes. Can you imagine of the 19th century abolitionists used the same tactic to end slavery? Irwin Schiff and Pete Hendrickson would have books telling slaves that there was no such thing as slavery, and there would be no repercussion AT ALL for simply upping and leaving your masters. Both would be in prison while continuing to claim there was no way anyone would go to prison for following their advice.

Thank God the abolitionists did not do that. Thank God they stood up and fought slavery! You fight evil by first recognizing that it exists, and then by fighting it head on.

p.s. Hey Ghost of Aaron Russo: I found that law you were whining about in fifteen seconds of googling.

[zoltan]

I don't think Irwin Schiff said there would be no repercussion or prison for not paying your slaver, did he? Also, the abolitionists fought slavery by helping people escape from it (or writing books about it to raise awareness). Isn't that what Schiff has been doing? Helping people escape tax enslavement?

[reason readin female]

That photo of him makes him look like a horrible actor in a horrible movie. (I've never seen the "blade")
He was at his best in "White Men Can't jump".

[Just Dropping By]

Blade is a pretty good horror-action film. Blade II is an awesome horror-action film. Blade III - Trinity is terrible, but it's not primarily Snipes' fault.

[EscapedWestOfTheBigMuddy]

The part in Demolition Man is, like the rest of the movie, very camp.

But he does it well, a good foil to a good (but campy) performance by Sly Stallone.

[R]

The movie also produced one of the best on-screen libertarian rants of all time.

[reason readin female]

Thanks for the tip on Blade. I'll check it out on Netflix. I have a 14 year old son, and the way you described it, sounds like something right up his alley!
Also, Demolition Man is a great movie! Stallone's performance was campy, but appropriate to the story.

[reason readin female]

I guess it's been a while since I've seen Demolition Man. I didn't realize that photo was from that movie! I think my son would like that one too....but convincing him to watch something from the dark ages takes patience and skill!
R,
Thanks for that link. Love Denis Leary too!

[Shmenge]

Sandra Bullock never looked better. And Benjamin Bratt was pretty funny.

[cyto]

'Why? Because I might suddenly feel the need...'

pretty much covers it...

[Barely Suppressed Rage]

Last I read about it, he was relying on the same old, tired, worn-out and completely rejected tax protestor arguments.

[zoltan]

Yeah, the "I'm not your slave and you deserve none of my money unless I voluntarily give it to you" is really the only good one.

[LIBERTREEE]

THE THINKING PERSONS TAX REBELLION SITE: http://WWW.TAXRETURNTEAM.ORG

BTW--NO YOU DIDN'T FIND THE LAW IN 15 SECONDS OF GOOGLING. YOU JUST THINK YOU DID. THE TAX SCAM IS COMPLEX, BUT BELIEVE ME, YOU WON'T FIND THE LAW MAKING YOU LIABLE FOR THE TAX IN 15 YEARS, NEVER MIND 15 SECONDS. CAUSE IT AIN'T THERE...

[sage]

Turn off your caps lock key, idiot!

[R]

BUT CAPS LOCK IS CRUISE CONTROL FOR COOL!!1@!!11!!ELVENTY1!1!!!

[melman]

the government has more guns and jail cells than you, so your wacky theories on how income tax is unconstitutional are irrelevant

[GSL]

Wow, didn't realize there were so many pro-tax people in the H&R commentariat these days! Regulars? Anyone?

[Drink!]

-nt-