The IRS has admitted to sharing information with an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Unit last year in court filings in response to a lawsuit over the administration's push to deport immigrants.
Last April, the Service provided the names and addresses of individuals believed to be living in the U.S. illegally. Information on approximately 47,000 taxpayers was tendered after Department of Homeland Security requested information on 1.2 million people before federal courts blocked the move
Employees of the Department of Government Efficiency provided access to the confidential taxpayer information, despite safeguards under federal law, leading to the departures of several high-level IRS Officials. However, the IRS has reportedly now discovered it inadvertently shared more confidential information than that on thousands of taxpayers with DHS.
A group of Senatorial Democrats wrote a letter last month to acting IRS Commissioner and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent seeking more information on the sharing of taxpayer information with DHS. The Service and DHS have faced numerous lawsuits over the sharing of such information.
When I first heard about this last year I was confused because for decades every major governmental agency involved in the collection of income taxes has been trying to get immigrants to file and pay taxes. The Service even created a special type of Social Security Number known as an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN), that allows people who have not yet received their full citizenship to complete an income tax return.
Now that taxpayer records are being used to track down and deport illegals, how many of those people do you think are going to file and pay taxes either now or at any time in the future? Probably not too many.
And the only ones that might file are the individuals who don't pay income tax given the refundable Earned Income Tax Credit or Refundable Child Tax Credits. They'll walk into a quickie refund service, give them a fake address, and walk out with a check for thousands of dollars further increasing the deficit and burdening the system.
Those immigrants who actually made significant amounts of money who were paying into the system, are probably now just a lost cause.
Let me leave you with this...
A heartbreaker of a case walked into my office a month ago that I wanted to share with you.
Twenty-five years ago this client filed her taxes, and paid what she owed. Of course, like anyone else, she thought that any possible situation as a result had ended decades ago.
She just received a tax bill for $60K in taxes, $12K in penalties, and $225K in interest on a return that was filed a quarter of a century ago.
If the statute of limitations on income tax returns is 36 months, how is this possible? How can the IRS come after a person after this amount of time has lapsed? How is this legal?
Under a little-known interpretation of the fraud exception to the statute of limitations, misconduct by your tax preparer rather than you, can keep an IRS audit window open indefinitely. They could go back to the first income tax return you filed back in high school or college and hit you with a tax bill if it was found that your preparer completed the return in a fraudulent manner.
The problem I have is what can I possibly do to help this woman? She doesn't have her records from twenty-five years ago.
How can I defend a situation where I have nothing to work with? When you add in the problem of the Service already having determined that the practitioner completed the return in a fraudulent manner, where am I actually going to take this case?
Here's my point.
Be careful who you use to file your taxes. If they aren't cleaner than my Grandmother's kitchen floor, you could have a problem that doesn't have a solution twenty-five years from now.
If you're worried about this sort of situation or are having any difficulties with your accounting and tax work, I'm waiting for you to contact me. We'd love to help.
We're all going to get through this. Let's get through it together.
GWB & Associates
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PUBLIC ACCOUNTANTS - SMALL BUSINESS ADVISORS - BUSINESS/PERSONAL TAX EXPERTS
02/05/2026
'Setting this agency up for failure': Amid staffing crunch, IRS taps employees with no relevant experience to assist during filing season The tax agency is taking unusual steps to prepare for its busy season after watchdog finds it is severely underprepared.
For most W-2 workers, employee expenses are not tax deductible on federal returns.
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 suspended these deductions, and recent legislation in 2025 made this change permanent for the vast majority of employees.
Who Can Still Deduct Expenses?
A few specific groups can still claim "ordinary and necessary" work-
related expenses:
Educators: K-12 teachers and aides can deduct up to $300 for
classroom supplies.
Armed Forces Reservists: Can deduct travel expenses for drills if
they are over 100 miles from home.
Qualified Performing Artists: Eligible if they meet specific income
and employment requirements.
Fee-basis Government Officials: If compensated in whole or part
by fees.
Disabled Employees: Can deduct impairment-related work
expenses.
Key Rules & Tips
Reimbursement is Key: If you don't fall into the categories above,
you should seek reimbursement from your employer.
Reimbursed expenses are typically tax-free for you and
deductible for the company.
State Taxes: While federal deductions are restricted, some states
(like California, New York, and Pennsylvania) may still allow you
to deduct these expenses on your state tax return.
Self-Employed: If you are a freelancer or contractor (1099), you
can still fully deduct business expenses on Schedule C.
Requirements: Any deductible expense must be both "ordinary"
common in your field) and "necessary" (helpful and appropriate
for the job).
For more details, refer to IRS Publication 529 or IRS Publication 463.
George W. Brown, Jr., EA
GWB & ASSOCIATES
1043 East 95th Street
Chicago, IL 60619
Voice 773-336-5722
Facsimile 773-336-5724
Mobile 773-842-6577
[email protected]
A 1099-NEC form is required if your business paid an independent contractor, freelancer, or sole proprietor $600 or more for services ($2,000+ for 2026 and beyond) within a calendar year. Payments must be made in the course of business, not for personal reasons, and are generally for non-corporate entities.
Key Requirements and Thresholds
Payment Threshold: \(\ge \$600\) for 2024/2025; \(\ge \$2,000\) for 2026.
Non-Employee Status: The recipient is not a W-2 employee.
Business Context: Payments made in the course of trade or business (including nonprofits).
Recipient Type: Individual, partnership, estate, or LLC (rarely, corporations if for legal/medical services).
Services Only: Includes fees, commissions, and parts/materials used to perform the service.
Backup Withholding: If federal income tax was withheld (regardless of amount), a 1099-NEC is required.
Information Needed for 1099-NEC
Form W-9: Always collect a signed W-9 from contractors before payment to ensure you have their name, address, and TIN (SSN or EIN).
Total Amount Paid: Sum of all payments in Box 1 of Form 1099-NEC.
Exceptions
Payments made to C or S corporations (except for legal services).
Payments made via third-party processors like PayPal or Venmo (these are reported on 1099-K instead).
Personal payments.
Deadlines
January 31 (or next business day) of the following year, for both filing with the IRS and sending to the recipient.
12/20/2025
11/04/2025
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) allows the seller of a qualifying small business to not pay Capital Gains Tax on the first $15M in qualifying gains. This new law can provide millions in tax savings to entrepreneurs.
There are many factors that qualify a business to be considered Qualified Small Business Stock (QSBS) which is necessary for the savings. But the biggest stumbling block for many will be converting to a C Corp and holding the stock for the waiting period before selling the company.
To convert from an S Corp to a C Corp, you must revoke your S Corp status by sending a statement of revocation to the IRS. While the process is relatively simple for an existing corporation, it involves careful consideration of the tax implications and shareholder consent.
Steps To Convert Your S Corp
You must secure consent from shareholders who collectively own more than 50% of the corporation's voting and non-voting stock. It is recommended to document this agreement with a formal Shareholder Resolution.
Mail a signed statement of revocation to the IRS Service Center where you originally filed your S Corp election. The statement must include...
1 - A declaration that the corporation is revoking its S Corp election.
2 - The effective date of the revocation.
3 - The corporation's name, address, and Employer Identification Number (EIN).
4 - The names, addresses, and taxpayer identification numbers of the shareholders, and the number of shares each holds.
5 - The signature of an authorized person, such as a corporate officer.
The effective date of the change determines your filing schedule. The timing can affect whether you need to file one or two tax returns for the year:
If you file the revocation by the 15th day of the third month of the tax year, the conversion can be effective on the first day of that year. If you file after the 15th day of the third month, the change will take effect on the first day of the following tax year.
Let me leave you with this...
The important considerations and tax implications in this conversion are almost too numerous to list and dependent on your individual circumstances. But some include...
1 - You should carefully consider whether to distribute previously taxed S Corp earnings (Accumulated Adjustments Account or AAA) before the conversion. The corporation's post-termination transition period allows a limited time to make cash distributions tax-free, but any remaining AAA essentially disappears afterward.
2 - As a C Corp, the company's profits will be taxed at the corporate level, and any dividends distributed to shareholders will be taxed again at the individual level. This is the most significant tax difference compared to an S Corp's pass-through taxation.
Most C Corp Owners take a larger salary to not pay most of the taxes a second time, but this also increases their payroll tax burden.
3 - An S Corp that has converted from a C Corp is subject to a Built-In Gains (BIG) tax on any appreciated assets it sells within ten years of its S Election. It is critical to do a consultation to understand how this impacts a conversion back to a C Corp.
4 - After converting to a C Corp, the company generally must wait five years before it can elect S Corp status again.
I know how complicated this is. It's challenging even for someone like me who does this for a living.
That's why I wrote three columns about it, but the potential tax savings when selling a business are huge.
If you're thinking about selling your business in the reasonably near future, then we should probably do some planning. It could make a big difference in your retirement.
If you have questions, please call my office and schedule a consultation.
We're all going to get through this. Let's get through it together.
GWB & Associates stands ready to complete our mission and purpose of protecting you, your family, and your business. Whether you need Payroll Services, Accounting and Tax Work, Tax Planning, or Tax Representation, you have but to ask. I'm here and I remain,
Sincerely yours,
George W. Brown, Jr. EA
GWB & Associates
1043 E. 95th Street
Chicago, IL 60619
773-336-5722
GWB & Associates Tax Preparation, Tax Resolution, Offer and Compromise Please scroll down to view full video
You know what you underestimate?
How much your "we go way back" CPA holds you back.
Loyalty is great. I get it...
But not when it costs you six figures a year.
Your CPA handled your taxes when you made $50K.
That was fine back then.
Now you're doing $2M.
They're still treating you exactly the same way.
But you don't want to hurt their feelings, right?
You don't want to be "that person" who bails.
So you stay. And you keep overpaying.
Your business grew. Their expertise didn't.
But you stick around anyway.
Here's what's really happening:
Your old CPA knows they're in over their head.
They just can't admit it.
And you know you need something different.
But you're too loyal to say it out loud.
So both of you just pretend everything's fine.
Meanwhile, you're bleeding money every single quarter.
And they're staying comfortable.
Your competitors already figured this out.
They are working with a Tax Advisor.
Stop letting nostalgia drain your bank account.
Schedule your FREE Tax Strategy Call today.
Lets Talk soon,
George W. Brown, Jr., EA
GWB & ASSOCIATES
1043 East 95th Street
Chicago, IL 60619
773.336.5722
P.S. Breaking up with your CPA isn't personal. It's business.
"There are two tax systems in our country: one for the informed and one for the uninformed".
This quote highlights the inherent inequality in the tax system. Those who are knowledgeable about tax laws and planning techniques can significantly reduce their tax burden compared to those who are not.
“In America, there are two tax systems: one for the informed and one for the uninformed. Both are legal.”
• Context:
Judge Learned Hand was a prominent judge and legal scholar who served on the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit for 52 years (1909 to 1961). Judge Learned Hand’s views on taxes were influential and continue to be discussed in legal and financial circles.
Judge Learned Hand famously stated, "Anyone may arrange his affairs so that his taxes shall be as low as possible; he is not bound to choose that pattern which best pays the treasury". He also famously observed, "There are two tax systems in our country: one for the informed and one for the uninformed".
These quotes highlight his belief that tax planning is a legitimate and common practice, and that there's a significant advantage to those who understand and utilize the tax laws effectively.
Elaboration:
• Quote 1:
"Anyone may arrange his affairs so that his taxes shall be as low as possible; he is not bound to choose that pattern which best pays the treasury". This quote emphasizes that individuals are not obligated to maximize the government's tax revenue. It's a legal and ethical right to arrange their affairs in a way that minimizes their tax liability, according to Forbes.
• Quote 2:
"There are two tax systems in our country: one for the informed and one for the uninformed". This quote highlights the inherent inequality in the tax system. Those who are knowledgeable about tax laws and planning techniques can significantly reduce their tax burden compared to those who are not. “In America, there are two tax systems: one for the informed and one for the uninformed. Both are legal.”
• Context:
Judge Learned Hand was a prominent judge and legal scholar who served on the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit for 52 years (1909 to 1961). Judge Learned Hand’s views on taxes were influential and continue to be discussed in legal and financial circles.
07/09/2025
One of the biggest sticking points on the One, Big Beautiful Bill, was the State and Local Tax Limitation (SALT). Originally put into place as a revenue enhancer with the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, it limited these Schedule A Deductions to $10,000.
This was a rather strange first in taxation history.
The concept before had always been that you should never pay a tax on a tax. In other words, the State and Local Taxes we paid before this were always deductible. But the $10,000 limitation of property taxes, state income taxes, and other State and Local Taxes like vehicle stickers and the like, caused real problems for many taxpayers.
I have clients that pay anywhere from $20K to $40K annually in property and state withholding/income taxes.
The New Law, which takes effect in 2025, includes...
1 - A $40,000 Deduction Limitation for State and Local Taxes
2 - An increase in the limitation of 1% annually through 2029
Before all of you start jumping for joy and popping the corks on well-aged Champagne Bottles, please realize that there's a kicker. The limitation has a rapid income phasedown with incomes from $500K to $600K.
In other words, once your income is over $600K, your SALT Cap is once again $10,000.
Let me leave you with this...
No matter what the phasedown is on the new law, this was a major victory. Bumping the limit up $30K will help a lot of entrepreneurs.
But the rapid phasedown creates the same old problem for many upper income taxpayers.
If you have a $100K W-2, $500K in K-1 income, and are paying $30K in property taxes, you're probably paying $60K in State and Local Taxes annually at a minimum. With the SALT Limitation at $10K, the loss of a $50K Deduction on your Schedule A will really hurt.
At an upper income tax rate between the Fed and State of 40%, that will cost you at least another $20K in taxes in 2025. This will again make the Pass-Through Entity Tax Credit (PTETC) a must for those taxpayers.
By the way, the PTETC made it through all the negotiations on the new bill unscathed.
It should be noted that what I'm presenting is only preliminary information. They still may pass even more tax law changes at the Federal Level. And I'll bet you dimes to donuts that the States are going to pass a bevy of new tax laws negating these Federal changes at the State Level to keep their revenues flowing.
Please remember that many of the states, for all intents and purposes, are broke.
Let's not forget our friends at the IRS. Just because Congress passes something and the President signs it into law doesn't mean that the Service will end up enforcing it. There'll be a ton of tax cases filed by those opposing the Trump Agenda to try to negate as much of this as possible.
We'll see where all of this lands. I'll keep you updated.
We're all going to get through this. Let's get through it together.
Please call 773-336-5722 to schedule a complimentary consultation!
GWB & ASSOCIATES stands ready to complete our mission with the purpose of protecting you, your family, and your business. Whether you need Payroll Services, Accounting and Tax Work, Tax Planning, or Tax Resolution Representation, you have but to ask. I'm here and I remain,
Sincerely yours,
George W. Brown, Jr
GWB & ASSOCIATES
773-336-5722
www.gwbtaxes.com
GWB & ASSOCIATES only provides professional services as outlined in a written communication from our office that specifies the scope, terms, and conditions of the engagement.
Call us today to schedule your free consultation
773-336-5722
Email me at: [email protected]
GWB & ASSOCIATES | 1043 East 95th Street | Chicago, IL 60619 US
GWB & Associates Tax Preparation, Tax Resolution, Offer and Compromise Please scroll down to view full video
06/03/2025
https://freemanlaw.com/estimating-tax-deductions-the-cohan-rule/ #
Estimating Tax Deductions: The Cohan Rule The Cohan Rule has stood for the proposition that taxpayers who are unable to produce complete records may be allowed to estimate certain tax deductions.
Learned Hand
Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it; no constitution, no law, no court can even do much to help it.
Billings Learned Hand (27 January 1872 – 18 August 1961), usually called simply Learned Hand, was an American judge and judicial philosopher. He served on the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York and later the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. He was famous as an avid supporter of free speech and for applying economic reasoning to American tort law. He is noted as one of the most influential American judges to have never served on the Supreme Court of the United States.
Quotes
Extra-judicial writings
Life is not a thing of knowing only — nay, mere knowledge has properly no place at all save as it becomes the handmaiden of feeling and emotion.
A wise man once said, "Convention is like the shell to the chick, a protection till he is strong enough to break it through."
The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure that it is right; the spirit of liberty is the spirit which seeks to understand the minds of other men and women…
Life is not a thing of knowing only — nay, mere knowledge has properly no place at all save as it becomes the handmaiden of feeling and emotion.
"Class-Day Oration" (1893).
We like rather to dream of a body of young men as a live thing, as a tree where all the branches are nourished by a single sap, and where each part is meaningless and incomplete except in connection with its fellows. You may lop away the dead branches, you may bend the trunk, you may dig about it and water it; but leave it to assume its own form, do not constrain the peculiar roots, or you will have a crippled, gnarled monster, and no tree.
"Class-Day Oration" (1893).
The mid-day sun is too much for most eyes; one is dazzled even with its reflection. Be careful that too broad and high an aim does not paralyze your effort and clog your springs of action.
"Class-Day Oration" (1893).
It is of course true that any kind of judicial legislation is objectionable on the score of the limited interests which a Court can represent, yet there are wrongs which in fact legislatures cannot be brought to take an interest in, at least not until the Courts have acted.
Letter to Louis D. Brandeis, dated (22 January 1919).
Yet the whole structure of the common law is an obvious denial of this theory; it stands as a monument slowly raised, like a coral reef, from the minute accretions of past individuals, of whom each built upon the relics which his predecessors left, and in his turn left a foundation upon which his successors might work.
Book Review, 35 Harv. L. Rev. 479, 479 (1922) (reviewing Benjamin N. Cardozo's The Nature of the Judicial Process).
The law, being an inherited accumulation, imposes itself on each generation willy-nilly. Any society whose members enter and leave it severally must for very convenience, to say nothing of deeper reasons, proceed by tradition; the neophyte must adopt existing habits and ways of acting, if for no better reason, through inexperience and diffidence. Mere custom will do the rest as he proceeds. And so the rule is canonized, its origins, and therefore its meaning, are ignored. But genuine learning is quite different.
"Mr. Justice Holmes at Eighty-Five" (1926).
With the courage which only comes of justified self-confidence, he dared to rest his case upon its strongest point, and so avoided that appearance of weakness and uncertainty which comes of a clutter of arguments. Few lawyers are willing to do this; it is the mark of the most distinguished talent.
"In Memory of Charles Neave" (1938).
Like John Stuart Mill, he would often begin by stating the other side better than its advocate had stated it himself.
On Benjamin N. Cardozo in "Mr. Justice Cardozo" (1939); also in The Spirit of Liberty: Papers and Addresses (1952), p. 131.
Life is made up of a series of judgments on insufficient data, and if we waited to run down all our doubts, it would flow past us.
"On Receiving an Honorary Degree" (1939).
You may ask what then will become of the fundamental principles of equity and fair play which our constitutions enshrine; and whether I seriously believe that unsupported they will serve merely as counsels of moderation. I do not think that anyone can say what will be left of those principles; I do not know whether they will serve only as counsels; but this much I think I do know — that a society so riven that the spirit of moderation is gone, no court can save; that a society where that spirit flourishes, no court need save; that in a society which evades its responsibility by thrusting upon the courts the nurture of that spirit, that spirit in the end will perish. What is the spirit of moderation? It is the temper which does not press a partisan advantage to its bitter end, which can understand and will respect the other side, which feels a unity between all citizens—real and not the factitious product of propaganda—which recognizes their common fate and their common aspirations—in a word, which has faith in the sacredness of the individual.
"The Contribution of an Independent Judiciary to Civilization" (1942).
The day has clearly gone forever of societies small enough for their members to have personal acquaintance with one another, and to find their station through the appraisal of those who have first hand knowledge of them. Publicity is an evil substitute and the art of publicity is a black art; but it has come to stay, every year adds to its potency and to the finality of its judgments. The hand that rules the press, the radio, the screen and the far-spread magazine, rules the country whether we like it or not, we must learn to accept it.
"Proceedings in Memory of Justice Brandeis" (1942).
What do we mean when we say that first of all we seek liberty? I often wonder whether we do not rest our hopes too much upon constitutions, upon laws and upon courts. These are false hopes; believe me, these are false hopes. Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it; no constitution, no law, no court can even do much to help it… What is this liberty that must lie in the hearts of men and women? It is not the ruthless, the unbridled will; it is not the freedom to do as one likes. That is the denial of liberty and leads straight to its overthrow. A society in which men recognize no check on their freedom soon becomes a society where freedom is the possession of only a savage few — as we have learned to our sorrow.
What then is the spirit of liberty? I cannot define it; I can only tell you my own faith. The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure that it is right; the spirit of liberty is the spirit which seeks to understand the minds of other men and women; the spirit of liberty is the spirit which weighs their interests alongside its own without bias; the spirit of liberty remembers that not even a sparrow falls to earth unheeded; the spirit of liberty is the spirit of Him who, near two thousand years ago, taught mankind that lesson it has never learned, but has never quite forgotten; that there may be a kingdom where the least shall be heard and considered side by side with the greatest.
“The Spirit of Liberty” - speech at “I Am an American Day” ceremony, Central Park, New York City (21 May 1944).
Right knows no boundaries and justice no frontiers; the brotherhood of man is not a domestic institution.
"A Pledge of Allegiance" - speech for "I Am an American Day" in Central Park, New York, New York. (20 May 1945).
We may not stop until we have done our part to fashion a world in which there shall be some share of fellowship; which shall be better than a den of thieves. Let us not disguise the difficulties; and, above all, let us not content ourselves with nobel aspirations, counsels of perfection, and self-righteous advice to others. We shall need the wisdom of the serpent; we shall have to be content with short steps; we shall be obliged to give and take; we shall face the strongest passions of mankind — our own not the least; and in the end we shall have fabricated an imperfect instrument. But we shall not wholly have failed; we shall have gone forward, if we bring to our task a pure and chastened spirit, patience, understanding, sympathy, forbearance, generosity, fortitude, and, above all, an inflexible determination. The history of man has just begun; in the aeons which lie before him lie limitless hope or limitless despair. The choice is his; the present choice is ours. It is worth the trial.
"A Pledge of Allegiance" - speech for "I Am an American Day" Central Park, New York, New York. (20 May 1945) Hand credited H. G. Wells with inspiring some of the ideas expressed in this speech.
Justice, I think, is the tolerable accomodation of the conflicting interests of society, and I don't believe there is any royal road to attain such accomodations concretely.
From The Great Judge by Philip Hamburger (1946).
"I beseech ye in the bowels of Christ, think that ye may be mistaken." I should like to have that written over the portals of every church, every school, and every courthouse, and, may I say, of every legislative body in the United States. I should like to have every court begin, "I beseech ye in the bowels of Christ, think that we may be mistaken."
Morals in Public Life (1951); Hand is here paraphrasing a famous expression of Oliver Cromwell from his letter of 3 August 1650 to the general assembly of the Church of Scotland. Expanded upon in Establishment of a Commission on Ethics in Government, testimony before the United States Senate Committee on Labor and Public Welfare. Special Subcommittee on the Establishment of a Commission on Ethics in Government (1951), p. 218:
I will give you an instance of what I mean, something he said that has always hung in my mind. It was just before the battle of Dunbar, where he beat the Scots, and that, as always, needed a very tough fight. (A marine whose name is Douglas will agree to that.) He wrote the Kirk before the fight, trying to get them to come to some reasonable composition: "I beseech ye in the bowels of Christ, think that ye may be mistaken." I should like to have that written over the portal of every church, every school and every courthouse. May I say I should even add over the portal of every legislative room in the United States? I should like every court to begin: "I beseech ye in the bowels of Christ, think that ye may be mistaken."
If we are to keep our democracy, there must be one commandment: Thou shalt not ration justice.
To The New York Legal Aid Society (16 February 1951).
Life is made up of constant calls to action, and we seldom have time for more than hastily contrived answers.
Speech in New York, New York (27 January 1952).
A wise man once said, "Convention is like the shell to the chick, a protection till he is strong enough to break it through."
"The Preservation of Personality" commencement address at Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania (2 June 1927); also in The Spirit of Liberty: Papers and Addresses (1952), p. 32.
Our dangers, as it seems to me, are not from the outrageous but from the conforming; not from those who rarely and under the lurid glare of obloquy upset our moral complaisance, or shock us with unaccustomed conduct, but from those, the mass of us, who take their virtues and their tastes, like their shirts and their furniture, from the limited patterns which the market offers.
"The Preservation of Personality" (2 June 1927).
We believe, and I think properly, that when the men who met in 1787 to make our Constitution they made the best political document ever made; but, remember, they did so very largely because they were great compromisers.
Establishment of a Commission on Ethics in Government, testimony before the United States Senate Committee on Labor and Public Welfare. Special Subcommittee on the Establishment of a Commission on Ethics in Government (1951), p. 229.
No doubt one may quote history to support any cause, as the devil quotes scripture; but modern history is not a very satisfactory side-arm in political polemics; it grows less and less so.
"Sources of Tolerance" (1930); also in The Spirit of Liberty: Papers and Addresses (1952), p. 79.
The condition of our survival in any but the meagerest existence is our willingness to accommodate ourselves to the conflicting interests of others, to learn to live in a social world.
Address to Yale Law Graduates (1931); also in The Spirit of Liberty: Papers and Addresses (1952), p. 87.
I shall ask no more than that you agree with Dean Inge that even though counting heads is not an ideal way to govern, at least it is better than breaking them.
"Democracy: Its Presumptions and Realities" (1932); also in The Spirit of Liberty: Papers and Addresses (1952), p. 92.
When I hear so much impatient and irritable complaint, so much readiness to replace what we have by guardians for us all, those supermen, evoked somewhere from the clouds, whom none have seen and none are ready to name, I lapse into a dream, as it were. I see children playing on the grass; their voices are shrill and discordant as children's are; they are restive and quarrelsome; they cannot agree to any common plan; their play annoys them; it goes poorly. And one says, let us make Jack the master; Jack knows all about it; Jack will tell us what each is to do and we shall all agree. But Jack is like all the rest; Helen is discontented with her part and Henry with his, and soon they fall again into their old state. No, the children must learn to play by themselves; there is no Jack the master. And in the end slowly and with infinite disappointment they do learn a little; they learn to forbear, to reckon with another, accept a little where they wanted much, to live and let live, to yield when they must yield; perhaps, we may hope, not to take all they can. But the condition is that they shall be willing at least to listen to one another, to get the habit of pooling their wishes. Somehow or other they must do this, if the play is to go on; maybe it will not, but there is no Jack, in or out of the box, who can come to straighten the game.
"Democracy: Its Presumptions and Realities" (1932); also in The Spirit of Liberty: Papers and Addresses (1952), p. 99 - 100.
Heretics have been hated from the beginning of recorded time; they have been ostracized, exiled, tortured, maimed, and butchered; but it has generally proved impossible to smother them; and when it has not, the society that has succeeded has always declined.
"A Fanfare for Prometheus" (29 January 1955); also in The Spirit of Liberty: Papers and Addresses (1952), p. 131.
It is still in the lap of the gods whether a society can succeed which is based on "civil liberties and human rights" conceived as I have tried to describe them; but of one thing at least we may be sure: the alternatives that have so far appeared have been immeasurably worse.
"A Fanfare for Prometheus" (29 January 1955).
We may win when we lose, if we have done what we can; for by so doing we have made real at least some part of that finished product in whose fabrication we are most concerned: ourselves.
"A Fanfare for Prometheus" (29 January 1955).
A self-made man may prefer a self-made name.
Granting court permission for Samuel Goldfish to change his name to Samuel Goldwyn, as quoted in Lion's Share by Bosley Crowther (1957).
It is often hard to secure unanimity about the borders of legislative power, but that is much easier than to decide how far a particular adjustment diverges from what the judges deem tolerable. On such issues experience has over and over again shown the difficulty of securing unanimity. This is disastrous because disunity cancels the impact of monolithic solidarity on which the authority of a bench of judges so largely depends.
The Bill Of Rights (1958), p. 72.
For myself it would be most irksome to be ruled by a bevy of Platonic Guardians, even if I knew how to choose them, which I assuredly do not.
The Bill of Rights (1958), p. 73.
In the end it is worse to suppress dissent than to run the risk of heresy.
Oliver Wendell Holmes lecture delivered at Harvard (1958); quoted in The Rhetoric of Our Times (1969) by J. Jeffery Auer, p. 124.
The judge's authority depends upon the assumption that he speaks with the mouth of others. That is to say, the momentum of his utterances must be greater than any which his personal reputation and character can command, if it is to do the work assigned to it — if it is to stand against the passionate resentments arising out of the interests he must frustrate — for while a judge must discover some composition with the dominant trends of his times, he must preserve his authority by cloaking himself in the majesty of an overshadowing past.
As quoted by William J Brennan Jr, Associate Justice, US Supreme Court, NY Times (October 6, 1963); and later in "The Role of the Court — The Challenge of the Future" in An Affair with Freedom (1967).
Most of my issues that mankind sets out to settle, it never does settle… The dispute fades into the past unsolved, though perhaps it may be renewed as history and fought over again. It disappears because it is replaced by some compromise that, although not wholly acceptable to either side, offers a tolerable substitute for victory…
As quoted in The Modern Researcher, 3rd edition (1977) by Jacques Barzun and Henry Graff, p. 44.
The public needs the equivalent of Chevrolets as well as Cadillacs.
On the trends toward popular marketing of legal services, quoted in USA Today (2 February 1984).
This is the most miserable of cases, but we must dispose of it as though it had been presented by actual lawyers.
As quoted in Learned Hand : The Man and the Judge (1994) by Gerald Gunther.
Speech to the Board of Regents (1952)
University of the State of New York (24 October 1952)
I had rather take my chance that some traitors will escape detection than spread abroad a spirit of general suspicion and distrust, which accepts rumor and gossip in place of undismayed and unintimidated inquiry.
That community is already in the process of dissolution where each man begins to eye his neighbor as a possible enemy, where nonconformity with the accepted creed, political as well as religious, is a mark of disaffection; where denunciation, without specification or backing, takes the place of evidence; where orthodoxy chokes freedom of dissent; where faith in the eventual supremacy of reason has become so timid that we dare not enter our convictions in the open lists, to win or lose.
The mutual confidence on which all else depends can be maintained only by an open mind and a brave reliance upon free discussion.
Judicial opinions
How long shall we blunder along without the aid of unpartisan and authoritative scientific assistance in the administration of justice, no one knows; but all fair persons not conventionalized by provincial legal habits of mind ought, I should think, unite to effect some change.
Parke, Davis & Co. v. H. K. Mulford Co. (1911).
Political agitation, by the passions it arouses or the convictions it engenders, may in fact stimulate men to the violation of the law. Detestation of existing policies is easily transformed into forcible resistance of the authority which puts them in ex*****on, and it would be folly to disregard the causal relation between the two. Yet to assimilate agitation, legitimate as such, with direct incitement to violent resistance, is to disregard the tolerance of all methods of political agitation which in normal times is a safeguard of free government.
Masses Publishing Co. v. Patten (1917).
[W]hat seems fair enough against a squalid huckster of bad liquor may take on a different face, if used by a government determined to suppress political opposition under the guise of sedition.
U.S. v. Kirschenblatt, 16 F.2d 202, 203 (2d Cir. 1926).
Any one may so arrange his affairs that his taxes shall be as low as possible; he is not bound to choose that pattern which will best pay the Treasury; there is not even a patriotic duty to increase one's taxes.
Helvering v. Gregory, 69 F.2d 809, 810-11 (2d Cir. 1934).
What to an outsider will be no more than the vigorous presentation of a conviction, to an employee may be the manifestation of a determination which it is not safe to thwart.
National Labor Relations Board v. Federbush Co., 121 F.2d 954, 957 (1941).
There is no surer way to misread any document than to read it literally. [...] As nearly as we can, we must put ourselves in the place of those who uttered the words, and try to divine how they would have dealt with the unforeseen situation; and, although their words are by far the most decisive evidence of what they would have done, they are by no means final.
Giuseppe v. Walling (1944).
If the prosecution of crime is to be conducted with so little regard for that protection which centuries of English law have given to the individual, we are indeed at the dawn of a new era; and much that we have deemed vital to our liberties, is a delusion.
United States v. Di Re (1947).
Over and over again courts have said that there is nothing sinister in so arranging one's affairs as to keep taxes as low as possible. Everybody does so, rich or poor; and all do right, for nobody owes any public duty to pay more than the law demands: taxes are enforced exactions, not voluntary contributions. To demand more in the name of morals is mere cant.
Commissioner v. Newman, 159 F2d 848 (1947).
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