June 4, 1996 Alma Wilson, Chief Justice Oklahoma Supreme Court Oklahoma State Capitol Oklahoma City 73105/tdc OKLAHOMA STATE Enclosure: IRS/IRC Public Notice Memorandum Dear Justice Wilson, I appreciate the willingness of you and Justice Opala to answer questions, and because of your consideration, have attempted to avoid going to the well too often. However, there are a couple of pressing matters I feel compelled to submit for your consideration, and if it wouldn't be too much trouble, ask you to solicit responses from other justices. In order to frame the questions, I am going to use the character of the Internal Revenue Service and application of the Internal Revenue Code as a backdrop. Enclosed you will find a public notice memorandum which indicts the Service as being an agency of the Department of the Treasury, Puerto Rico, and demonstrates that the Internal Revenue Code has mandatory application solely in the geographical United States, exclusive of the several States. IRS principals have already acquiesced to most of the material. The IRS memorandum is relevant as I recently helped Paul Graham file a petition for writ of habeas corpus against a United States district court judge and an assistant United States attorney in a matter relating to criminal prosecution via the U.S. district court for the Western District of Oklahoma. In addition to demonstrating that IRS doesn't have legal standing in Oklahoma, I alleged, with considerable legal authority behind the allegation, that the Department of Justice, via the U.S. Attorney, is representing the Central Authority, established by United States treaties on private international law (see 28 CFR § 0.49), and via various court cases, demonstrated that the principals of interest are the so-called World Bank and International Monetary Fund. Additionally, I demonstrated that the U.S. district court is operating under admiralty authority (18 U.S.C. § 3231), and that it doesn't have jurisdiction in the several States save on federal enclaves (Eleventh Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the second paragraph of 18 U.S.C. § 3231, and 18 U.S.C. § 7(3)). Yet the Oklahoma Supreme Court, evidently with all justices concurring, elected not to execute the writ of habeas corpus on behalf of Mr. Graham. I haven't sent the Graham petition for the writ of habeas corpus on to the United States Supreme Court. It was my opinion that there is too much at stake, for too many people, to botch the job. I wanted to complete the IRS/IRC memorandum, which was in the works when the Graham situation came up, and begin publishing it in county legal newspapers state-by-state before joining the matter in courts again. People in approximately 15 states have made commitments to sponsor publication. The Graham situation is incidental to queries in this letter, and I am merely using IRS as an example, so responses don't need to address any pending case or even IRS, merely underlying principles. Consider the Graham situation as incidental. It frames the first question, but only as an example. Suppose I moved the Graham petition for writ of habeas corpus to the United States Supreme Court, with attending evidences, and justices of the United States Supreme Court elected not to issue the habeas corpus. At that juncture, would Mr. Graham's judicial remedies be exhausted? And implicitly, since approximately 10 million Americans in the several States are at any given time being subjected to IRS tyranny, would judicial remedies for the American people as a whole not be exhausted? That's the first question. Forgive my shallow understanding of law as I only began the serious study in March 1993, slightly over three years ago. Even though I came to Oklahoma as a university freshman in September 1963, I confess that I hadn't read the Oklahoma Constitution, and was as lost as a goose in a snow storm when I began searching through statutory law and court cases. Aside from being a publishing writer since 1969, my background was in English, with emphasis on literature, with a broad background and formal study in philosophy, and economics. I've always worked for a living; I enjoy work, and for the most part, have been willing to leave government alone if government would leave me alone. An Albert Carter video titled IRS Investigated prompted me to begin legal research. We had what appeared to be a recoverable deficit tax situation, but Carter allegations sent me to the Kay County Courthouse law library -- Special Judge Pam Legate and two of the assistant district attorneys at the time helped me muddle through volumes of law and court decisions. We began challenging IRS authority and trying to secure particulars of IRS legal standing and application of law at that point. Then in March 1994, two IRS agents and a fleet of wreckers converged at our house west of Ponca City while I was at work -- they didn't have a court order or any other legal authority, but commenced to seize automobiles. In the process, one of the wreckers rammed my wife, and the whole affair traumatized two of our pre-school grandchildren. It was at that point that I made the uncompromising commitment to end the tyranny once and for all -- my family and neighbors, and people throughout America, simply cannot be exposed to government-sanctioned terrorism, particularly if it is perpetrated on behalf of foreign principals. Needless to say, the attack on family and home intensified my focus on legal research and strategies. You can understand my consternation when I learned, by experience, that judicial officers in State and United States statutory courts almost unanimously refuse to comply with rules governing conduct of the courts, particularly with respect to mandates pertaining to judicial notice and presumed fact. In the case of the Oklahoma Supreme Court, I was particularly disappointed when justices elected to wink at treason. I was sickened by disdain the U.S. district court judge articulated. At first blush, my conclusions of law may appear a little off base, but I helped Mr. Graham file the petition for writ of habeas corpus in the Oklahoma Supreme Court for what I still believe are legitimate reasons. Thomas Jefferson is among those who have addressed the issue. In the Kentucky Resolutions, Jefferson pointed out that the Constitution places only four categories of crime under United States jurisdiction. Ratification of the Eleventh Amendment in 1798 the same as set the matter in stone. Courts of the United States have precious little authority in the several States. Examination of the Judicial Act of 1911 confirms the limited jurisdiction, and the second paragraph of 18 U.S.C. § 3231 specifically reserves authority of the laws and courts of the several States. The Constitution, the Judicial Act of 1911, and the Federal Code of Criminal Procedure are in agreement: The laws and courts of the several States are superior to United States courts within the territorial bounds of the States -- United States admiralty and maritime jurisdiction does not extend inland to the several States except on federal enclaves ceded to the United States for constitutional purposes, as specified at 18 U.S.C. § 7(3). In the Kentucky Resolutions, Jefferson addressed another situation where Congress exceeded constitutionally delegated authority via the Alien and Sedition Acts. Jefferson argued that when Congress exceeds constitutionally delegated authority, the several States have both the right and responsibility for correcting federal government. Unfortunately, most Americans are at least as ignorant as I was three years ago. But I don't believe you folks are. Everything in law is premised on dominion. Original authority resides somewhere -- nothing comes from nothing. So there must be a beginning. In the American system, founders laid our foundation in the Declaration of Independence. From the beginning, they concluded that there are certain self-evident truths. One of those truths is that man was created by God, God being the original authority, and another of the truths they proclaimed is that man is endowed by certain unalienable rights, rights to life, liberty, and property, or in the poetic, pursuit of happiness, the most conspicuous. They then went on to say that governments are established among men for certain specific purposes. And they made the entire scheme accountable to, "the laws of Nature and Nature's God" -- natural and moral law. This foundation of order and authority is antecedent to the very existence of government. God is the Grantor, man the grantee. Man is the beneficiary who is directly endowed by God, and is therefore directly accountable to God, with natural and moral law set in place by God providing a framework for individual and collective conduct. The American Revolution secured independence of the colonies within the territorial bounds of original charters and acquired lands. Independent state governments were subsequently affirmed by the people, then the people, by representative delegation and by way of the new States, established the United States via the Constitution, the United States being successor to the Confederacy in 1789. An underlying principle tells us that the created is never greater than the creator. Preambles to United States and State constitutions uniformly credit the People for establishing government in the American system, and in the constitutional framework, governments so established can exercise only delegated or enumerated powers. If a power isn't prescribed by any given constitution, the government created by that constitution cannot exercise it. Article II § 1 of the Oklahoma Constitution acknowledges that all political power is inherent to the people, and sections 1 & 3 provide means for correcting, altering or abolishing existing government. Ninth and Tenth Amendments to the United States Constitution preserve the order of power: The Ninth reserves rights of the people even though they are not enumerated in the Constitution or the Bill of Rights, then the Tenth specifies that powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution are reserved for the States and the People respectively. The problem where the instant matter is concerned should be obvious: Not exercising authority is no better than not having it. If the parent tells a child, "Don't do that!" but never uses parental authority to discipline the child, the child eventually ignores the parent, and will likely treat the parent as a nag rather than legitimate authority. I have two grown sons who managed to get through high school and into adult lives without being arrested or having serious difficulties other than what is routine for young adults establishing themselves. When the oldest was about 25, I asked why he and his brother were never into mischief common for contemporaries. "We weren't worried about the cops," he said, "but we knew we'd have to call home." The analogy frames the Jefferson theme: In the order of things, the several States are antecedent to the United States, and when the United States exceeds delegated authority, the States have the right, even the responsibility, to correct unconstitutional exercise of power. Likewise, when Government people posing under color of law to exercise alleged United States authority that is not legitimate in the several States, State judicial and enforcement officers are obligated to prosecute them. Suppose a renegade contingent of Army personnel stationed at Ft. Sill took arms into Lawton and robbed a bank under auspices of United States military authority. Lawton police would lock the perpetrators up in a heartbeat, as they should. Several years ago we had the situation in Kay County where a Native American Indian allegedly killed a baby by way of infant shaking syndrome (brain damage from shaking). The family lived in Ponca City at the time. The man was tried in the Kay County district court but there was a mistrial due to a hung jury. A year or two later, a second infant died in approximately the same fashion, but the family then lived on the Ponca Tribe reservation at White Eagle. The district attorney once again elected to prosecute charges for the first infant death, but the second, because the alleged incident resulting in death took place on Indian land, was prosecuted through the Bureau of Indian Affairs in the United States district court. Given these examples of exercise of proper jurisdictional authority, it's difficult to grasp why people exercising bogus United States judicial and enforcement authority in the several States should be any more immune from accountability to State law and police power than those in uniformed service or any other person who blatantly and brazenly defies fundamental law. The grant of immunity makes a mockery of the Tenth Amendment, the Separation of Powers Doctrine, other underlying constitutional principles, and common sense. Jefferson's admonition that it is the right and responsibility of the State to correct United States government when Congress crosses the line with respect to constitutionally delegated authority reinforces the mandate for State governments individually to enforce the laws of the State against those who operate within any given State under color of law, whether of the United States, some other State, or the host State. Unless officers of the several States are willing to carry out this charge, the Tenth Amendment and the Separation of Powers Doctrine are of no effect -- they mean nothing. The nation becomes as a seamless garment under Congress' unrestricted Article IV jurisdiction rather than being a patchwork of fifty republics subject only to Congress' Article I delegated powers. The purpose of this clear division was to protect the people from consolidated Government power and tyranny, not serve the convenience of Government. In fact, the chief argument of those who opposed the Constitution and formation of the United States was the potential for concentrating power that might usurp sovereignty of the States and the People -- an eventuality which has obviously materialized. The law itself is clear on the subject of specifically delegated power. But we have a problem. We're in trouble the day of the big race if we go to the barn and find mules substituted for our horses. Mules are amiable critters, and are even capable of enormous amounts of work, but they don't run with Thoroughbreds on race day. And they have the additional problem of being sterile. If the barn is filled with mules, the last generation is at hand. You see the difficulty: If the Constitutional Republic governed by fundamental law is threatened by the avarice of ambitious men, and those responsible for maintaining the Republic are impotent, where do we the People turn? To resolve the dilemma, we must turn to the source and original relationships: If God endowed man with certain unalienable rights, he simultaneously imposed unavoidable responsibilities. Those responsibilities are framed by natural and moral law -- where physical law operates in the framework of cause and effect, moral law operates in the framework of cause and consequence. The People ultimately pay the price. They bear the consequence of tyranny. When we as sovereigns neglect responsibilities for maintaining the domain established as our heritage, it will invariably be threatened and we ourselves subdued. The evil of the day will consume us. In 1992, the United States Supreme Court touched these matters in New York v. United States, et al.: Those in public service who exercise power not delegated invariably do so for self-serving ends. In the American system, the question is not what power government should have, but it is what power applicable constitutions specifically delegate. It is here that we return to the instant matter, and can understand core issues addressed in the Nuremberg trials following World War II: Tyranny never stands on one leg. Perpetrators by intent rely on accommodation. Thus, those who fail to fulfill obligations imposed by fundamental law are joined to tyranny by consent. In other words, failure to perform a duty bestowed is as destructive to liberty as exercise of power which is not delegated. The system of checks and balances built into American government assures that complicity of intent and consent must be in place or tyranny cannot prevail -- it is stunted in infancy when usurpation is not accommodated by those who profit or fear and thereby fail to fulfill duties. Venue for the United States district court is prescribed at 18 U.S.C. § 3231: The district courts of the United States shall have original jurisdiction, exclusive of the courts of the States, of all offenses against the laws of the United States. Nothing in this title [18 USCS §§ 1 et seq.] shall be held to take away or impair the jurisdiction of the courts of the several States under the laws thereof. The second paragraph, as verified by the jurisdiction statute at 18 U.S.C. § 7(3), preserves the authority of courts and law in the several States: § 7. Special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States defined The term "special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States", as used in this title [18 USCS §§ 1 et seq.], includes: (3) Any lands reserved or acquired for the use of the United States, and under the exclusive or concurrent jurisdiction thereof, or any place purchased or otherwise acquired by the United States by consent of the legislature of the State in which the same shall be, for the erection of a fort, magazine, arsenal, dockyard, or other needful building. Article VII § 4 of the Oklahoma Constitution vests the Oklahoma Supreme Court with appellate jurisdiction and jurisdiction over common law writs coextensive with borders of the State: § 4. Jurisdiction of Supreme Court -- Writs The appellate jurisdiction of the Supreme Court shall be coextensive with the State and shall extend to all cases at law and in equity ... and in the event there is any conflict as to jurisdiction, the Supreme Court shall determine which court has jurisdiction and such determination shall be final ... The Supreme Court, Court of Criminal Appeals, in criminal matters and all other appellate courts shall have power to issue, hear and determine writs of habeas corpus, mandamus, quo warranto, certiorari, prohibition and such other remedial writs as may be provided by law and may exercise such other and further jurisdiction as may be conferred by statute... Article II § 10 of the Oklahoma Constitution provides as follows: The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall never be suspended by the authorities of this State. The territorial bounds of authority couldn't be clearer, and the instrument for execution couldn't be better defined and compelling - the delegated responsibility couldn't be articulated in more precise terms. Authority of State and United States courts is divided according to the law of legislative jurisdiction -- courts of the United States, United States enforcement people, et al., are guests in the territorial state of Oklahoma, and the several States collectively, except on federal enclaves. As guests, they are subject to correction, censure and even expulsion. Those responsible for assuming bogus authority to impose tyranny against Citizens of the State are subject to State criminal prosecution and civil remedies just as certainly as my former neighbor, who was a pipe fitter, is subject to fundamental law indigenous to the State. Wearing badges, black robes or whatever, and claiming, "I'm from the United States Government," doesn't mean a thing in Oklahoma except in the framework of Congress' Article I authority as constitutional government for the several States. The whole purpose of segregated and clearly defined authority in the American system, as articulated in the Separation of Powers Doctrine and the Tenth Amendment, is to prevent consolidation of power. The State and the United States have clearly defined roles. But when one yields, conspiracy is joined -- the Republic, governed by fundamental law, is dead. Jefferson spoke to the issue: Let's hear no more of confidence in men, but bind them one and all with constitutional chains. The Kentucky Resolutions successfully intervened on the Alien and Sedition Acts, and the Eleventh Amendment articulating limitation of United States judicial authority in the several States was put in place in 1798, but public servants in the several States at that time had sufficient moral substance to turn back the tide of tyranny -- they ended the siege by refusing to consent, to accommodate, to acquiesce. We are very near the second question -- a question I do not want to ask, and you do not want to answer, but we are compelled by circumstance to address the matter: Clearly, the People suffer the effects of tyranny. Our labor and wealth, our very substance, along with our posterity, are the objects of avarice and ambition. So when redress is not available through the courts; when the State has abdicated vested powers and responsibilities, and we have exhausted judicial remedies, are the sovereign People of the several States not entitled to employ whatever means are necessary to restore constitutional government? Regards, /s/ Dan Meador Dan Meador # # #
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