Rep. and Presidential candidate Michele Bachmann has done
well in recent polls causing many observers to consider her with greater
scrutiny. Nothing jumped out at me at
first. Then I heard that she was not
just a former tax attorney, but that she was a tax attorney for the IRS. This alleged fact gave me pause as a fiscal
conservative and tea party sympathizer.
Below is the mess of information I found on Rep. Bachmann's
legal career reorganized for rational perusal.
Law school: O.W. Coburn School of Law at Oral Roberts
University
According to her bio, Rep. Bachmann graduated
from the O.W. Coburn
School of Law at Oral Roberts
University in 1986. It
appears that this was the last class of the school as the school was merged
into the fledgling law program at CBN University, later called Regents School of Law in Virginia. This does not appear to have been a particularly
prestigious law school, but in the end, a legal career is what you make of it.
L.L.M in Tax: William
and Mary School of Law
Rep. Bachmann then claims to have obtained an
L.L.M in Tax at the William and Mary School of Law in 1988. In modern terms, most L.L.M. programs are
designed for foreign trained lawyers to become eligible to take a bar
examination in a U.S. state
and are unavailable to lawyers that attend a United States law school. Nonetheless, there are a few specialties that
allow students to apply for and obtain L.L.M's in particular fields. A specific L.L.M. specialty that withstood
the test of time is an L.L.M. in Tax.
Both the L.L.M. in Tax and the William and Mary School of Law carry with
them a substantial amount of prestige.
This should be a gold star on her biography.
And then there was
uninformed scrutiny . . .
Apparently,
William and Mary School of Law only offers L.L.M.'s to foreign lawyers who wish
to practice in the United States. There
is no Tax L.L.M. program. Picking up on
this fact, commentators (I am being generous here) have been angrily accusing
Rep. Bachmann of lying about her legal pedigree. See here,
here,
and here. They use phrases such as William and Mary
does not and "never has" offered an L.L.M. in Tax law.
It is just plain
wrong. William and Mary School of
Law used to offer an L.L.M. in Tax. William
and Mary recently put
out a statement acknowledging her degree and alumnae status. If you simply Google the relevant search
terms you can find other attorneys claiming to have an L.L.M. in Tax form
William and Mary in 1988. E.g., here
and here. Either this is a massive conspiracy or she
actually has the degree. Another
observer came
to the same conclusion I did on her own.
Is she licensed to
practice law?
The answer is yes, she
was and currently appears to be licensed to practice law by the state of Minnesota. Any attempt to suggest this is not true or
odd that she might choose Minnesota
is inherently false and uninformed.
But what about the
IRS stuff?
According to the Wall
Street Journal and the Atlantic
she did represent the IRS in collections matters against taxpayers. According to the WSJ article, because few
matters were appealed there is little documentation from her time at the IRS
from 1988-1992. A note to readers, we
likely will not see much in response to FOIA requests either as the relevant
documents are likely attorney client privileged and/or contain personal
information of taxpayers and will be protected from disclosure. This era in Rep. Bachmann's life should be
concerning for those supporting limited government.
Surely government service, even for the IRS, is no bar to
support from those seeking a limited government, but it certainly raises
questions. Rep. Bachmann acknowledges
she was a tax attorney, but does not talk openly about her representation of
the federal government. On her
Congressional website she states,
". . .I saw firsthand that our nation’s tax laws are hard to understand
and undermine the country’s prosperity by imposing needlessly harsh penalties
on work, savings, and investments."
If she contends she learned the evils of the tax code while working for
the IRS, that is a narrative that can sell.
Refusing to talk about her time at the IRS is the wrong decision,
and forces me to remain skeptical.
I can understand your skepticism of Bachman's IRS tenure, but I also think it is important to note two things:
ReplyDelete1) 4 years right out of college at the IRS is not a delimiter to me. Her time is rather short and her statements against the code are factually consistent.
2) her statement regarding the issue within the code tell me she's learned something. I can understand your skepticism of Bachman's IRS tenure, but I also think it is important to note two things:
1) Her time at the IRS was her first real position as a tax attorney right out of college and is not an automatic delimiter to me
2) her statement regarding the issue within the code tell me she's learned something. Unfortunately though, I think it difficult for her to even discuss case information to support her position. However, the fact that she consistently decrys the issue within the code says a lot.
Both of these things tell me she is forthright and until we can find an actual inconsistency in her statements or any falsehood in her history, I remain favorable of her stated position and support her repeated calls for limited government.