Judge Lloyd D. George wrote that Irwin Schiff and his associates knew that they were “offering fraudulent tax advice” and that the book is false commercial speech, which “is not protected by the First Amendment,” adding that it also “does not shield criminal conduct in tax schemes.” However, Allen Lichtenstein, who as general counsel of the American Civil Liberties Union in Nevada is representing Schiff, said in the June 17 New York Times that The Federal Mafia “cannot be banned as false commercial speech and does not meet any other criteria for censorship.”
ALA’s Freedom to Read Foundation had joined the American Civil Liberties Union and three other free speech groups May 1 in a friend-of-the-court brief that opposed a temporary restraining order preventing Schiff from selling his book. Schiff says he will appeal the decision.
Posted June 23, 2003.