The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals held 3–0 that while the Constitution allows the publication of ideas without government interference, a book can be forbidden if it's found to entail false advertising, the San Francisco Chronicle reported August 10. The ruling said Schiff was free to “explain his unorthodox tax theories without simultaneously urging his readers to buy his products.”
American Civil Liberties Union lawyer Allen Lichtenstein voiced relief that the judges did not block Schiff from expressing his ideas, but only their commercial application. “The government was suggesting that those theories, in and of themselves, and the exposition of those theories should be prohibited,” said Lichtenstein, who had filed a friend-of-the-court brief supporting Schiff on behalf of the ACLU, the American Library Association's Freedom to Read Foundation, and other free-speech groups.
Schiff was indicted by a federal grand jury in March for tax evasion and assisting in the preparation of fraudulent tax returns. He faces a maximum sentence of 43 years in prison and $3.25 million in fines on those charges.
Posted August 13, 2004.