US Supreme Court Takes Up Jurisdictional Rule Questioned By Tax Clinic

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to take up another suit trying to sort out which deadlines deprive courts of jurisdiction to hear disputes and which are merely “claims processing rules” that can be tolled.

A string of cases – several brought forth by LSC’s Tax Clinic (See Procedurally Taxing on claims processing rules and D.C. Circuit Court decision.) – has challenged the extent to which statutes setting forth filing deadlines are truly jurisdictional statutes and deprive the courts of the ability to hear untimely cases, or if failure to comply with such rules can be remedied because the statutory deadline is a mere “claims processing rule.”

The latest dispute, which the Supreme Court agreed to take up, involves a 30-day deadline for filing a collection due process petition for the U.S. Tax Court, which the law firm fighting the rule, Boechler P.C., missed by one day.

The tax-filing deadline is “jurisdictional” and can’t be waived for equitable reasons, the St. Louis-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit determined.

LSC’s Tax Clinic attorneys and students plan to file an amicus brief in the Supreme Court case, says Tax Clinic Director Keith Fogg. “Tax Clinic volunteer Carl Smith is the architect of the argument that the Supreme Court precedent in the past 15 years narrowly limiting the time periods for filing in court deemed jurisdictional should apply to Tax Court cases. The Tax Clinic first made this argument in a case where the taxpayer’s petition arrived at the Tax Court one day late because the court was closed on the due date as the result of a snow storm in Washington, D.C. The Tax Court rejected the Tax Clinic’s argument in that case in a fully reviewed opinion in which all of the judges on the Tax Court voted resulting in a 16-0 decision against the Tax Clinic’s position. Despite that initial loss and several thereafter, the Tax Clinic not give up. Tax Clinic students have made this argument in the 2^nd, 4^th (twice) and 10^th Circuits. They have filed amicus briefs in the D.C. Circuit, 8^th Circuit, 9^th Circuit (twice), 2^nd Circuit and the Supreme Court. Having the Supreme Court accept the Boechler case for argument provides the opportunity for an issue begun by the Tax Clinic to have a broad impact on taxpayers on an issue that can impact anyone but has a larger impact on low income taxpayers.”