Petition for Writ of Certiorari — Howard L. Baldwin, et ux., Petitioners v. United States
Supreme Court briefSep 23, 2019
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No. ________
In the Supreme Court of the United States
_____________
HOWARD L. BALDWIN AND
KAREN E. BALDWIN,
A MARRIED COUPLE, PETITIONERS
v.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, RESPONDENT
_____________
ON PETITION FOR A WRIT OF CERTIORARI
TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT
_____________
PETITION FOR A WRIT OF CERTIORARI
_____________
ROBERT W. KEASTER
CHAMBERLIN & KEASTER LLP
16000 Ventura Blvd.
Suite 301
Encino, CA 91436
PHILIP HAMBURGER
MARK CHENOWETH
ADITYA DYNAR
Counsel of Record
NEW CIVIL LIBERTIES ALLIANCE
1225 19th St. NW, Suite 450
Washington, DC 20036
(202) 869-5210
Adi.Dynar@NCLA.
onmicrosoft.com
Counsel for Petitioners
i
QUESTIONS PRESENTED
National Cable & Telecommunications Association v.
Brand X Internet Services held that an agency’s “permissible reading” of a statute trumps circuit-court precedent
if the prior court had interpreted a statute that was silent or ambiguous with respect to the specific issue. 545
U.S. 967, 984 (2005) (emphasis in original). In all other
situations, stare decisis dictates that opinions issued by
federal appellate panels can be overruled only by en banc
courts of appeals, by this Court, or by a properly enacted
statute.
The Ninth Circuit in this case, acting under the
Brand X doctrine, deferred to the Internal Revenue Service’s interpretation of 26 U.S.C. § 7502 and held that
the Ninth Circuit’s prior construction of the statute did
not bar IRS’s subsequent contrary construction of that
section because the statute was “silent” as to the specific
legal issue. App.11a. The Ninth Circuit’s precedent, established in 1992, had upheld the common-law mailbox
rule. Nearly 20 years later in August 2011, IRS issued its
contrary interpretation, which not only overruled court
precedent but also abrogated a common-law rule that
has prevailed for hundreds of years.
Absent Brand X, Ninth Circuit precedent based on
ordinary tools of statutory construction would have controlled. Consequently, Howard and Karen Baldwin, who
prevailed in district court, would have obtained a tax refund of about $168,000, plus statutory interest and attorneys’ fees. Accordingly, the Baldwins present the following questions:
(1) Should Brand X be overruled?
(2) What, if any, deference should a federal agency’s
statutory construction receive when it contradicts
a court’s precedent and disregards traditional
tools of statutory interpretation, such as the common-law presumption canon?
ii
DETAILS REQUIRED BY RULE 14.1(b)
Parties
All parties are listed on the cover page.
Petitioners are Howard Baldwin and Karen Baldwin,
a married couple, who were plaintiffs in the district court
and appellees in the court of appeals.
Respondent (defendant-appellant in the court of appeals) is the United States of America.
Rule 29.6 Statement
None of the parties are corporations.
Related Proceedings
Proceedings directly related to the case are as follows:
• Baldwin v. United States, No. 2:15-CV-06004RGK-AGR, U.S. District Court for the Central
District of California. Judgment after bench trial
entered December 2, 2016, and Order awarding
attorney’s fees entered January 24, 2017.
•
Baldwin v. United States, Nos. 17-55115, 1755354 (consolidated, respectively, appeal from the
December 2 Judgment, and appeal from the January 24 Order), U.S. Court of Appeals for the
Ninth Circuit. Panel decision issued April 16,
2019, and Order denying rehearing issued June
25, 2019.
iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Questions Presented ............................................................i
Details Required by Rule 14.1(b)...................................... ii
Table of Authorities ............................................................vi
Petition for a Writ of Certiorari .........................................1
Opinions Below ....................................................................2
Jurisdiction ...........................................................................2
Relevant Statutes and Regulations ..................................2
Statement of the Case .........................................................3
A. The Baldwins mailed the tax-refund claim
four months before the filing deadline ..................3
1. Claiming the filing was “untimely,” IRS
sought dismissal of the Baldwins’ suit ...........3
2. The only dispositive issue pertained to
Section 7502 .......................................................5
B. The district court ordered trial to prove—
and the Baldwins proved—timely mailing
under Section 7502 ..................................................6
1. The common-law mailbox rule under Anderson applies here ............................................6
2. IRS overruled the Anderson decision by
amending its regulation....................................8
3. The district court concluded that Anderson controls .........................................................9
4. The Baldwins proved their claim was
postmarked June 21, 2011 ............................ 10
C. The Ninth Circuit concluded that Brand X
required it to give Chevron deference to
IRS’s amended regulation ................................... 11
iv
Reasons for Granting the Petition ................................. 13
I. Reconsideration of Brand X is long overdue ........... 13
A. Brand X subverts stare decisis............................ 13
B. Brand X is unworkable ........................................ 16
C. Brand X was wrongly decided ............................ 20
1. Brand X denies due process and impairs
judicial independence under Article III ....... 20
2. Brand X violates the Constitution’s separation of powers ............................................ 23
D. Overruling Brand X need not affect the applicability or constitutionality of Kisor or
Chevron .................................................................. 25
II. Alternatively, the Court should grant certiorari
to clarify whether the Brand X doctrine permits
an agency to disregard traditional statutoryconstruction tools ........................................................ 26
A. The Court should clarify that the first analytical step before applying Brand X should
be rigorously applying traditional tools of
statutory construction to a statute’s text .......... 26
B. The Court should specify that Brand X is not
a magic-words review of the first-in-time
court decision......................................................... 30
III. This case is an attractive vehicle to resolve the
critically important question of whether
Brand X should be overruled or cabined ................. 33
Conclusion ......................................................................... 34
v
APPENDIX
U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit, Opinion,
April 16, 2019 .............................................................. 1a
U.S. District Court, Central District of California,
(In Chambers) Opinion & Order re Bench Trial,
December 2, 2016 ..................................................... 16a
U.S. District Court, Central District of California,
(In Chambers) Order re: Motion for Attorney’s
Fees, January 24, 2017 ............................................ 24a
U.S. District Court, Central District of California,
(In Chambers) Order re: Defendant’s Motion for
Summary Judgment, July 27, 2016 ....................... 32a
U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit, Order Denying Petition for Rehearing, June 25, 2019............. 42a
U.S. District Court, Central District of California,
Judgment, December 7, 2016.................................. 43a
Internal Revenue Code § 6511, 26 U.S.C. § 6511 ..... 44a
Internal Revenue Code § 7422, 26 U.S.C. § 7422 ..... 46a
Internal Revenue Code § 7502, 26 U.S.C. § 7502 ..... 47a
28 U.S.C. § 1346 ............................................................. 51a
26 C.F.R. § 301.7502-1 [Old Version applicable
during June 2011, 66 Fed. Reg. 2257-01 (Jan.
11, 2001)] ................................................................... 52a
26 C.F.R. § 301.7502-1 [Current Version, 76 Fed.
Reg. 52561-01 (Aug. 23, 2011)] ............................... 64a
vi
TABLE OF AUTHORITIES
CASES
Agostini v. Felton, 521 U.S. 203 (1997) .......................... 14
Anderson v. United States, 966 F.2d 487 (9th Cir.
1992) ..................................................................... passim
Arangure v. Whitaker, 911 F.3d 333 (6th Cir. 2018)
.....................................................................17, 27, 28, 29
Carroll v. Commissioner, 71 F.3d 1228 (6th Cir.
1995) ......................................................................... 6, 18
Caperton v. A.T. Massey Coal Co., 556 U.S. 868
(2009) ............................................................................ 20
Chamber of Commerce v. U.S. Dep’t of Labor, 885
F.3d 360 (5th Cir. 2018) ............................................. 29
Chicago & Southern Air Lines, Inc. v. Waterman
S.S. Corp., 333 U.S. 103 (1948)................................. 24
Colony, Inc. v. Commissioner, 357 U.S. 28 (1958) ........ 31
Davis v. United States, 230 F.3d 1383 (Fed. Cir.
2000) ................................................................................7
Deutsch v. Commissioner, 599 F.2d 44 (2d Cir.
1979) ................................................................................6
De Niz Robles v. Lynch, 803 F.3d 1165 (10th Cir.
2015) ....................................................................... 23, 24
Driscoll v. Burlington-Bristol Bridge Co., 86 A.2d
201 (N.J. 1952) ............................................................ 15
Egan v. Delaware River Port Authority, 851 F.3d
263 (3d Cir. 2017) ....................................................... 20
Estate of Wood v. Commissioner, 92 T.C. 793 (1989)
..........................................................................................7
Estate of Wood v. Commissioner, 909 F.2d 1155
(8th Cir. 1990) ................................................................7
vii
Fairfax’s Devisee v. Hunter’s Lessee, 11 U.S. 603
(1812) ............................................................................ 28
FedEx Home Delivery v. NLRB, 849 F.3d 1123
(D.C. Cir. 2017) ..................................................... 29, 31
Flora v. United States, 362 U.S. 145 (1960) .....................4
Garcia-Celestino v. Ruiz Harvesting, Inc., 843 F.3d
1276 (11th Cir. 2016).................................................. 29
Garfias-Rodriguez v. Holder, 702 F.3d 504 (9th Cir.
2012) ....................................................................... 19, 23
Graves v. New York, 306 U.S. 466 (1939) ...................... 14
Gutierrez-Brizuela v. Lynch, 834 F.3d 1142 (10th
Cir. 2016) ...................................................20, 22, 23, 24
Hayburn’s Case, 2 U.S. 409 (1792) ................................. 24
Hyler v. Commissioner, 84 T.C.M. 717 (2002) .............. 27
Int’l Harvester Credit Corp. v. Goodrich, 350 U.S.
537 (1956) .................................................................... 26
Isbrandtsen Co. v. Johnson, 343 U.S. 779 (1952) ......... 32
Jaen v. Sessions, 899 F.3d 182 (2d Cir. 2018) ............... 29
Jicarilla Apache Tribe v. FERC, 578 F.2d 289 (10th
Cir. 1978) ..................................................................... 32
Kisor v. Wilkie, 139 S. Ct. 2400 (2019)................... passim
Lagandoan v. Ashcroft, 383 F.3d 983 (9th Cir.
2004) ............................................................................. 29
Landgraf v. USI Film Prods., 511 U.S. 244 (1994) ...... 19
Lewis v. Casey, 518 U.S. 343 (1996) ............................... 15
Lewis v. United States, 942 F. Supp. 1290 (E.D. Cal.
1996) ............................................................................. 18
Maine Medical Center v. United States, 675 F.3d
110 (1st Cir. 2012) .........................................................6
viii
Marbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. 137 (1803)......................... 25
Marmolejo-Campos v. Holder, 558 F.3d 903 (9th
Cir. 2009) ..................................................................... 23
Martinez v. United States, 101 Fed. Cl. 688 (2012).........7
Masterpiece Cakeshop, Ltd. v. Colorado Civil
Rights Comm’n, 138 S. Ct. 1719 (2018) ................... 21
Michigan v. EPA, 135 S. Ct. 2699 (2015) ................ 23, 25
MikLin Enterprises, Inc. v. NLRB, 861 F.3d 812
(8th Cir. 2017) ............................................................. 22
Miller v. United States, 784 F.2d 728 (6th Cir. 1986)
..........................................................................................6
National Cable & Telecommunications Ass’n v.
Brand X Internet Services, 545 U.S. 967 (2005)
............................................................................... passim
Oregon Restaurant & Lodging Ass’n v. Perez, 843
F.3d 355 (9th Cir. 2016) ............................................. 17
Payne v. Tennessee, 501 U.S. 808 (1991) ....................... 14
Pereira v. Sessions, 138 S. Ct. 2105 (2018).................... 26
Philadelphia Marine Trade Ass’n–Int’l Longshoremen’s Ass’n Pension Fund v. Commissioner, 523
F.3d 140 (3d Cir. 2008) .................................................7
Rios v. Nicholson, 490 F.3d 928 (Fed. Cir. 2007).......... 32
Rosenthal v. Walker, 111 U.S. 185 (1884) ..... 8, 10, 13, 22
Savitz v. Peake, 519 F.3d 1312 (Fed. Cir. 2008) ........... 32
Sorrentino v. IRS, 383 F.3d 1187 (10th Cir. 2004)... 7, 18
Spencer Medical Associates v. Commissioner, 155
F.3d 268 (4th Cir. 1998) ................................................7
State Oil Co. v. Khan, 522 U.S. 3 (1997)........................ 15
Storelli v. Commissioner, 86 T.C. 443 (1986) ................ 11
ix
St. Charles Journal, Inc. v. NLRB, 679 F.2d 759
(8th Cir. 1982) ............................................................. 31
Surowka v. United States, 909 F.2d 148 (6th Cir.
1990) ................................................................................6
United States v. Dickson, 40 U.S. 141 (1841)................ 34
United States v. Eurodif S.A., 555 U.S. 305 (2009)...... 18
United States v. Garcia-Santana, 774 F.3d 528 (9th
Cir. 2014) ..................................................................... 29
United States v. Home Concrete & Supply, LLC,
566 U.S. 478 (2012) .............................................. 16, 31
United States v. L.A. Tucker Truck Lines, Inc., 344
U.S. 33 (1952) .............................................................. 15
Valent v. Commissioner of Social Security, 918 F.3d
516 (6th Cir. 2019) ...................................................... 21
Van Brunt v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 2010–220,
100 T.C.M. (CCH) 322 (2010).................................... 27
Waters v. Churchill, 511 U.S. 661 (1994) ...................... 15
Wells Marine, Inc. v. Renegotiation Bd., 54 T.C.
1189 (1970) ............................................................ 26–27
CONSTITUTIONAL PROVISIONS
U.S. Const. art I ................................................................ 23
U.S. Const. art. I, § 1 ....................................................... 23
U.S. Const. art. II.............................................................. 23
U.S. Const. art. III ................................................ 20, 23, 24
U.S. Const. art. III, § 1 .................................................... 23
U.S. Const. amend. V ........................................... 13, 20, 21
U.S. Const. amend. XIV ....................................... 13, 20, 21
x
STATUTES
8 U.S.C. § 1401 ................................................................. 29
10 U.S.C. § 1566(g)(2) ...................................................... 28
26 U.S.C. § 6511 ............................................................. 2, 4
26 U.S.C. § 6511(a) ........................................................ 3, 4
26 U.S.C. § 6511(b)(1).................................................... 3, 4
26 U.S.C. § 6511(d)(2)(A) .............................................. 3, 4
26 U.S.C. § 6532(a)(1).........................................................4
26 U.S.C. § 7422 ..................................................................2
26 U.S.C. § 7422(a) ........................................................ 3, 4
26 U.S.C. § 7502 ....................................................... passim
26 U.S.C. § 7502(a) .................................................... 10, 21
26 U.S.C. § 7502(a)(1).................................................... 4, 6
26 U.S.C. § 7502(c)..............................................................6
26 U.S.C. § 7805(b) .......................................................... 12
28 U.S.C. § 453 ................................................................. 21
28 U.S.C. § 1254(1) .............................................................2
28 U.S.C. § 1346 ........................................................... 2, 10
28 U.S.C. § 1346(a)(1)................................................ 2, 3, 4
38 U.S.C. § 7105(b)(1)...................................................... 32
38 U.S.C. § 7266 ............................................................... 28
38 U.S.C. § 7266(c)(2) ...................................................... 32
39 U.S.C. § 404 ................................................................. 28
42 U.S.C. § 1395w-112(b)(4)(A)(iii) ................................ 28
42 U.S.C. § 1395w-112(b)(4)(D)(iv) ................................ 28
52 U.S.C. § 30104(a)(2)(A)(i)........................................... 28
52 U.S.C. § 30104(a)(4)(A)(ii).......................................... 28
xi
52 U.S.C. § 30104(a)(5).................................................... 28
REGULATIONS
26 C.F.R. § 301.7502-1 ............................................ passim
26 C.F.R. § 301.7502-1(c)(1)............................................ 27
26 C.F.R. § 301.7502-1(e) ...................................................9
26 C.F.R. § 301.7502-1(e)(2) ..................................... 12, 34
26 C.F.R. § 301.7502-1(g)(4) ........................................... 12
69 Fed. Reg. 56377-01 (Sep. 21, 2004) ........................... 22
76 Fed. Reg. 52561-01 (Aug. 23, 2011) .......................... 22
RULES
Fed. R. App. P. 25 ............................................................. 28
Fed. R. Bankr. P. 8011 ..................................................... 28
S. Ct. R. 13.3 .........................................................................2
S. Ct. R. 14.1(b) ................................................................... ii
S. Ct. R. 29 ......................................................................... 28
S. Ct. R. 29.6 ........................................................................ ii
OTHER AUTHORITIES
Amy Coney Barrett, Substantive Canons and
Faithful Agency, 90 B.U.L. Rev. 109 (2010) ............ 28
Philip Hamburger, Chevron Bias, 84 Geo. Wash. L.
Rev. 1187 (2016) ......................................................... 20
H.R. Rep. No. 90-1104 (1968).......................................... 27
Kenneth H. Ryesky, Tax Simplification: So Necessary and So Elusive, 2 Pierce L. Rev. 93 (2004) ..... 27
xii
Cass R. Sunstein, Law and Administration After
Chevron, 90 Colum. L. Rev. 2071 (1990) ................. 28
S. Rep. No. 90-1014 (1968) .............................................. 27
When
to
File,
IRS
(May
1,
2019),
https://bit.ly/2kl0LrM ................................................. 33
1
PETITION FOR A WRIT OF CERTIORARI
Howard and Karen Baldwin, who produced the critically acclaimed movie Ray (2004) based on Ray Charles’
life, had filed a claim for the refund of their 2005 income
tax. Four months before the deadline to claim a refund,
they mailed a refund claim to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to recover $167,663 in overpaid taxes by regular United States mail.
IRS claimed it never received their refund claim and
refused to pay them. The Baldwins sued IRS to get their
money back. There was an easy way to prove—and they
did so at trial—that they had in fact mailed the claim on
June 21, 2011, four months before the October 15 refundfiling deadline.
The relevant statute (26 U.S.C. § 7502), Ninth Circuit precedent, and the centuries-old common-law mailbox rule were all on the Baldwins’ side. That precedent
clearly allowed the Baldwins to prove the postmark date,
which is deemed the date of delivery, by using extrinsic
evidence such as witness testimony.
After trial, the district court entered judgment
against IRS. On appeal, however, the Ninth Circuit concluded that IRS’s later-in-time interpretation (issued in
August 2011) trumps the centuries-old common-law
mailbox rule, the Ninth Circuit’s longstanding precedent, and the plain text of Section 7502, all under the
Brand X doctrine. IRS’s new interpretation did not allow
use of extrinsic evidence to prove the postmark date of a
tax document sent by regular U.S. mail.
Thanks to Brand X, the court below reversed the favorable outcome the Baldwins had obtained after full
trial. Absent Brand X, the Ninth Circuit would have
simply followed its Anderson (1992) decision. Brand X,
therefore, was outcome-determinative here. The Court
2
should grant certiorari to revisit Brand X, or in the alternative, to determine whether Brand X permits an agency
to uproot the common law and plug the hole with its own
rule.
OPINIONS BELOW
The Ninth Circuit opinion is reported at 921 F.3d
836. App.1a–15a. The district court opinion is not reported but reproduced at App.16a–31a.
JURISDICTION
The Baldwins invoked the district court’s jurisdiction
under 28 U.S.C. § 1346(a)(1). The Ninth Circuit issued
its opinion on April 16, 2019. App.1a. It denied a timelyfiled petition for rehearing en banc on June 25, 2019.
App.42a. Petitioners request a writ of certiorari pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1254(1). This petition is filed within
90 days of the Ninth Circuit’s denial of the petition for
rehearing per Rule 13.3.
RELEVANT STATUTES AND REGULATIONS
The relevant provisions are reproduced at App.44a–
77a, namely: 26 U.S.C. §§ 6511, 7422, 7502; 28 U.S.C.
§ 1346; 26 C.F.R. § 301.7502-1 (old and new versions).
3
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
A. The Baldwins Mailed the Tax-Refund Claim
Four Months Before the Filing Deadline
Howard and Karen Baldwin overpaid their 2005 income taxes. As a result, they were entitled to a tax refund
of $167,663. App.18a.
To obtain the refund, the Baldwins had until October
15, 2011 to file their amended 2005 tax return pursuant
to the limitations period given in 26 U.S.C. §§ 6511(a),
(b)(1), (d)(2)(A). App.4a. IRS agrees that was their deadline. The Baldwins mailed the relevant tax documents by
regular U.S. mail to IRS on June 21, 2011—i.e., about
four months before the statute of limitations ran.
App.10a.
1. Claiming the Filing Was “Untimely,” IRS
Sought Dismissal of the Baldwins’ Suit
IRS claimed it never received the return. It denied
the Baldwins’ refund claim as “untimely.” 26 U.S.C.
§ 7422(a); App.4a. The Baldwins then filed suit under 28
U.S.C. § 1346(a)(1).
In the district court, IRS filed a motion for summary
judgment claiming the case should be dismissed for lack
of jurisdiction. App.33a. In the motion, IRS argued that
because the Baldwins’ filing was untimely, the agency
was immune from suit. To understand that argument,
one needs to look at the statutory scheme.
There are several logical steps linking untimeliness
with sovereign immunity in IRS’s argument. It argued
as follows:
4
•
To maintain a civil action in federal court under
28 U.S.C. § 1346(a)(1) “for the recovery of” overpaid taxes—and to overcome sovereign immunity—the taxpayer must meet three requirements:
(1) the taxpayer must fully pay the tax for the year
in question. Flora v. United States, 362 U.S. 145,
176 (1960); (2) the refund claim must be “duly
filed” with IRS under Internal Revenue Code
(IRC) § 7422(a), 26 U.S.C. § 7422(a)1—i.e., filed
within the limitations period of Section 65112; and
(3) the tax-refund suit must be filed within the period given in IRC § 6532(a)(1).
•
If there is a dispute as to the precise filing date,
IRC § 7502 resolves such a dispute. Section 7502
provides that for tax-refund claims sent to IRS “by
United States mail,” the “postmark” date “shall be
deemed to be the date of delivery” of the tax-refund claim. 26 U.S.C. § 7502(a)(1).
•
Thus, a refund claim is “duly filed” within the
meaning of Section 7422(a) if the “postmark” date
falls, as relevant here, within the limitations period of IRC §§ 6511(a), (b)(1), (d)(2)(A).
•
As a result, if the postmark date cannot be proved
or if it falls beyond the statute of limitations, then
Unless otherwise noted, all statutory references are to Title
26 of the United States Code.
1
Sections 6511(a), (b)(1), (d)(2)(A), as relevant here, establish a six-year limitations period to seek a tax refund. That is, Section 6511(d)(2)(A) adds three additional years to the three-year
statute of limitations given in Sections 6511(a), (b)(1) for the specific
type of refund claimed by the Baldwins.
2
5
federal courts do not have jurisdiction to entertain
a taxpayer’s tax-refund suit.
2. The Only Dispositive Issue Pertained to
Section 7502
In its summary-judgment motion, based on this extended syllogism, IRS claimed it was immune from suit
and had not waived sovereign immunity. App.35a. The
Court held that the Baldwins plainly met the first and
third requirements: they had fully paid (in fact, overpaid)
the tax liability for tax-year 2005 and filed the suit
within the prescribed time. App.36a.
The only question, therefore, was whether the Baldwins had met the second of these three requirements—
timely filing of the refund claim. IRS maintained it never
received the refund claim. App.37a.
Thus, the case depended on whether the refund claim
was timely filed under Section 7502. That is, if the Baldwins could prove the postmark date of June 21, 2011, the
refund claim would be deemed filed on that date, well before the October 15 deadline. Consequently, they would
satisfy all three requirements for maintaining the taxrefund suit, establish the district court’s jurisdiction, and
receive their refund, plus statutory interest and attorneys’ fees.
6
B. The District Court Ordered Trial to Prove—
and the Baldwins Proved—Timely Mailing
Under Section 7502
1. The Common-Law Mailbox Rule Under
Anderson Applies Here
As relevant here, Section 7502 provides for two ways
to prove the postmark date for tax documents sent by
“United States mail”: (1) presenting proof of registered or
certified mail conclusively proves delivery, and (2) for
other types of United States mail, such as regular or
first-class mail, proving the postmark date by introducing extrinsic or circumstantial evidence establishes a
presumption of receipt by IRS. Compare IRC
§ 7502(a)(1) (providing for “deliver[y] by United States
mail,” which includes, inter alia, priority mail, first-class
mail, registered mail, certified mail), with IRC § 7502(c)
(providing special rules for registered mail, certified
mail, and electronic filing).
Following enactment of Section 7502 in 1954, a circuit split developed. On one side3 were circuits holding
that Section 7502 is “exclusive” and that it “displac[es]
the common-law mailbox rule altogether.” App.8a. In
these circuits, Section 7502 does not “tolerat[e] testimonial and circumstantial evidence to prove when a document was mailed (and thus presumptively delivered).”
App.8a. The Baldwins’ claim would be considered untimely filed in these circuits because the only evidence
they had establishing the June 21 postmark date was
Maine Medical Center v. United States, 675 F.3d 110 (1st
Cir. 2012); Deutsch v. Commissioner, 599 F.2d 44 (2d Cir. 1979);
Miller v. United States, 784 F.2d 728 (6th Cir. 1986); Surowka v.
United States, 909 F.2d 148 (6th Cir. 1990); Carroll v. Commissioner, 71 F.3d 1228 (6th Cir. 1995).
3
7
“[o]ral testimony and documentary exhibits,” which
these circuits do not allow. App.17a.
On the other side4 of the split were circuits concluding that Section 7502 “is best read as providing a safe
harbor” for taxpayers. App.8a. These circuits relied on
the principle that “statutes should not be read as displacing the common law unless Congress clearly so intended.” Id. Section 7502 in these circuits did not “displace the common-law mailbox rule.” At common law,
“proof of proper mailing—including by testimonial or circumstantial evidence—gives rise to a rebuttable presumption that the document was physically delivered to
the addressee in the time such a mailing would ordinarily take to arrive.” App.5a. The Baldwins’ refund claim
would have been duly filed in these circuits based on oral
testimony and documentary exhibits that proved the refund claim was postmarked June 21, 2011.
The Ninth Circuit, in Anderson v. United States,
adopted the latter reasoning. 966 F.2d 487 (9th Cir.
1992). Anderson was a refund-recovery suit like the
Baldwins’. The sole question, as here, was whether the
plaintiff “had filed a timely claim for refund.” 966 F.2d at
488. Acknowledging the circuit split, Anderson held that
“[n]either the language of the statute nor Ninth Circuit
precedent bars admission of extrinsic evidence to prove
Philadelphia Marine Trade Ass’n–Int’l Longshoremen’s
Ass’n Pension Fund v. Commissioner, 523 F.3d 140, 147 (3d Cir.
2008); Estate of Wood v. Commissioner, 909 F.2d 1155, 1161 (8th
Cir. 1990) (affirming U.S. Tax Court’s en banc decision in Estate of
Wood v. Commissioner, 92 T.C. 793 (1989)); Sorrentino v. IRS, 383
F.3d 1187 (10th Cir. 2004).
The Fourth and Federal Circuits have declined to take sides on
this question. Spencer Medical Associates v. Commissioner, 155
F.3d 268, 272 (4th Cir. 1998); Martinez v. United States, 101 Fed.
Cl. 688, 693 (2012) (citing Davis v. United States, 230 F.3d 1383
(Fed. Cir. 2000)).
4
8
timely delivery,” and that “enactment of Section 7502 did
not displace the common law presumption of delivery”
because the “statute itself does not reflect a clear intent
by Congress to displace the common law mailbox rule.”
Id. at 491.
The common-law rule has an ancient pedigree. As far
back as 1884, this Court concluded that the common-law
mailbox rule is “well settled” for letters sent by United
States mail, Rosenthal v. Walker, 111 U.S. 185, 193
(1884):
The rule is well settled that if a letter
properly directed is proved to have been either put into the post office or delivered to
the postman, it is presumed, from the
known course of business in the post office
department, that it reached its destination
at the regular time, and was received by
the person to whom it was addressed.
In the Baldwins’ case, the Central District of California said that the Ninth Circuit’s Anderson decision,
which in turn relied on Rosenthal, controlled. The court
explained that “the common law provides that proof of
timely mailing of the return raises a rebuttable presumption that it was timely received.” App.37a (quoting
Anderson at 491). Under Section 7502, a taxpayer can
introduce extrinsic and circumstantial evidence of mailing to establish “a presumption of receipt.” App.37a (citing Anderson).
2. IRS Overruled the Anderson Decision by
Amending Its Regulation
In 2011, however, IRS amended 26 C.F.R.
§ 301.7502-1 (“Regulation”), and made “registered or
9
certified mail receipts the only evidence that can conclusively or presumptively establish receipt of a return not
actually received.” App.37a–38a (emphasis in original)
(citing 26 C.F.R. § 301.7502-1(e)). Consequently, the
question the district court had to address was whether
IRS’s interpretation of Section 7502 controls or whether
Anderson does.
3. The District Court Concluded
Anderson Controls
that
The district court concluded that the “regulation is in
direct conflict with Ninth Circuit precedent”—Anderson—“which allows credible extrinsic evidence of mailing
to create a presumption of receipt.” App.38a.
However, IRS argued that because “any prior judicial
constructions of [§ 7502] are superseded by reasonable
agency interpretations of ambiguous statutes” under the
Brand X doctrine, the agency’s regulation should get
“Chevron deference.” App.38a.
The district court saw “no statutory ambiguity” in
Section 7502 and held that IRS’s 2011 Regulation “materially alters an otherwise clear statute.” App.39a. Because the court found “that § 7502 is not ambiguous,” it
granted “no deference … to the Treasury Department’s
interpretation of the statute.” App.40a.
Anderson therefore controlled, the court explained.
App.40a. The court permitted the Baldwins to present
extrinsic evidence proving the date when the tax-refund
claim was postmarked. Since the “credibility of each
party’s evidence is for a jury to weigh, and is not a determination made at summary judgment,” the court denied
IRS’s motion for summary judgment and ordered the
parties to proceed to trial “with respect to the timely filing of their refund claim.” App.41a.
10
4. The Baldwins Proved Their Claim Was
Postmarked June 21, 2011
The court conducted a bench trial. App.3a. At trial,
the Baldwins proved that their assistant had mailed the
refund claim to IRS “via regular mail at the … post office,” and that it “would have arrived at the IRS service
center in the ordinary course well before the October 15,
2011 deadline.” App.18a. IRS “offer[ed] no affirmative
evidence calling into question that the [Baldwins] mailed
[the refund claim] … on June 21, 2011.” App.18a.
Thus, the court found “credible” the Baldwins’ evidence that the refund claim “was indeed mailed on” June
21, 2011, and that IRS “failed to rebut the presumption
of delivery.” App.19a–20a (emphasis added); see Anderson, 966 F.2d at 492 (“The district court’s conclusion that
the government failed to rebut the presumption of delivery was, in essence, a credibility determination.”).
The court reiterated that the common-law mailbox
rule applied because Section 7502 “did not displace the
common law presumption of delivery” dictated by the
rule. App.19a (quoting Anderson, 966 F.2d at 491). The
common-law rule, the court explained, states that
“proper and timely mailing of a document raises a rebuttable presumption that it is received by the addressee.”
App.20a (citing Rosenthal, 111 U.S. at 193–94).
Therefore, the Baldwins had “met the requirements
of 28 U.S.C. § 1346, and ha[d] further demonstrated that
they are entitled to a tax refund of $167,663.” App.22a.
The court also awarded attorneys’ fees and costs to the
Baldwins as the prevailing parties. App.24a–31a.
IRS appealed from the district court’s judgment and
its order awarding fees and costs to the Baldwins—two
cases that the Ninth Circuit consolidated.
11
C. The Ninth Circuit Concluded that Brand X
Required It to Give Chevron Deference to
IRS’s Amended Regulation
In the Ninth Circuit, IRS argued that the district
court erroneously rejected the government’s deference
argument—that its Regulation barred application of Anderson’s common-law mailbox rule. App.10a. It claimed
that the district court erred in viewing Section 7502 “as
unambiguously supplementing, rather than supplanting, the common-law mailbox rule, thus leaving no room
for the agency to adopt the construction of the statute reflected in [the Regulation].” App.10a.
The Baldwins argued that because Section 7502 is
unambiguous, Brand X does not switch on Chevron deference for IRS’s Regulation. App.10a. They also argued
that if the court applies Brand X and affords Chevron
deference, IRS still cannot repeal common law unless the
statutory language the agency is construing clearly and
explicitly repeals the common-law rule. The common-law
presumption canon, which is a traditional tool of statutory construction applied at Chevron Step One, dictates
this result. App.12a. Finally, they argued that IRS
should not be permitted to simply override the Ninth Circuit’s Anderson decision under the Brand X doctrine.
App.13a.5
The Baldwins also argued, using traditional tools of interpretation, that the default common-law mailbox rule applies because Section 7502 applies when a tax document is sent before, but
received after, the applicable due date. They argued, because the
statute does not address a situation where, as here, IRS claims it
never received the document, the default common-law mailbox rule
should apply. See Storelli v. Commissioner, 86 T.C. 443, 447 (1986)
(“The provisions of section 7502(a) are applicable, however, only if
5
12
The Ninth Circuit concluded that “IRC § 7502 is silent as to whether the statute displaces the common-law
mailbox rule,” App.11a (emphasis added), and it further
concluded that statutory silence triggers the Brand X
doctrine under which courts “employ the familiar twostep analysis under Chevron[.]” App.10a.
In a single paragraph, without employing any traditional tools of statutory construction, the court decided at
Chevron Step One that Section 7502 is “silent.” App.11a.
Then proceeding immediately to Chevron Step Two,
again in a single paragraph, the court held that IRS’s
“construction of the statute is reasonable.” App.12a.
In sum, the Ninth Circuit held that IRS’s Regulation
“is valid and applicable” under Brand X. Thus, the “exclusive” way left for the Baldwins to prove that the refund was postmarked June 21, 2011 was to produce a
registered-mail or certified-mail receipt. 26 C.F.R.
§ 301.7502-1(e)(2). In other words, because they had
mailed their refund by regular mail, the Regulation gave
them no way to prove the postmark date. Therefore, the
Baldwins’ tax-refund claim was deemed not “timely
filed” under the Regulation. Consequently, they could
not maintain the tax-refund suit, having failed to overcome sovereign immunity. App.15a. No longer being
the petition is delivered.”). The Ninth Circuit rejected that argument. App.13a–14a.
They had also argued that the Regulation, which was promulgated in August 2011—two months after they mailed their refund
claim—does not apply for that reason. The 2011 Regulation provides that it “will apply to all documents mailed after September
21, 2004.” App.14a (quoting 26 C.F.R. § 301.7502-1(g)(4)). The court
rejected the Baldwins’ argument, concluding that the retroactivity
provision of the Regulation complies with IRC § 7805(b), “which authorizes the Treasury Secretary to make regulations retroactively
applicable as far back as the date of their proposal.” App.14a–15a.
13
“prevailing parties,” the court also reversed the Baldwins’ attorneys’-fees award. App.15a.
The Ninth Circuit’s decision thus depended on the
Brand X doctrine, and on the question of what, if any,
deference a federal agency’s statutory construction
should receive when it contradicts a court’s precedent
and disregards traditional tools of statutory interpretation like the common-law presumption canon. The Baldwins present precisely those questions here.
REASONS FOR GRANTING THE PETITION
I. RECONSIDERATION OF BRAND X IS LONG OVERDUE
Lower-court judges have urged this Court to revisit
Brand X. The Court should grant certiorari and overrule
Brand X because it erodes stare decisis, it is unworkable,
and it was wrongly decided. Further, reconsidering
Brand X need not have any effect on the applicability or
validity of Chevron or Kisor. As the district court explained, without Brand X, the Baldwins clearly get their
money back.
A. Brand X Subverts Stare Decisis
Brand X enables agencies to circumvent stare decisis.
It empowers agencies to take out precedents they do not
like via regulation—even ones like Anderson (1992),
Rosenthal (1884), and the centuries-old common-law
mailbox rule. The agencies may then replace unfavorable
precedents by providing only cursory justification—not
“special justification”—for the changes. Adherence to
and judicial respect for stare decisis, therefore, should actually compel discarding Brand X.
14
Brand X allows agencies to undercut predictability,
stability, fair notice to parties like the Baldwins, reasonable reliance, and settled expectations—values that stare
decisis and the Due Process Clause protect. Stare decisis
“promotes the evenhanded, predictable, and consistent
development of legal principles, fosters reliance on judicial decisions, and contributes to the actual and perceived integrity of the judicial process.” Kisor v. Wilkie,
139 S. Ct. 2400, 2422 (2019) (quoting Payne v. Tennessee,
501 U.S. 808, 827 (1991)). Any departure from stare decisis “demands special justification—something more
than an argument that the precedent was wrongly decided.” Id. (cleaned up).
The Baldwins’ case illustrates the fair notice problem
especially well. In light of longstanding common law, a
decades-old statute, and the then two-decade-old Anderson decision, the Baldwins had every reason to expect
that they would be able to rely on extrinsic evidence
(should it become necessary) to prove they mailed their
return on time. Instead, thanks to the workings of Brand
X, the Ninth Circuit allowed IRS in one swoop to erase
the common law, the statute, and the court precedent
simply by passing a new regulation—after the Baldwins
had already filed their return. Such palpable unfairness
is diametrically opposite to stare decisis values like fair
notice and reasonable reliance.
Even if that were not so, stare decisis should not be a
bar to overruling Brand X. “The ultimate touchstone of
constitutionality is the Constitution itself and not what
[this Court has] said about it.” Graves v. New York, 306
U.S. 466, 491–92 (1939) (Frankfurter, J., concurring).
Stare decisis “is at its weakest when [the Court] interpret[s] the Constitution.” Agostini v. Felton, 521 U.S.
203, 235 (1997).
15
Further, Brand X itself did not address the constitutional objections that the Baldwins raise here. It cannot,
therefore, be said that this Court has rejected these constitutional arguments by adhering to Brand X for 14
years. Cases such as Brand X “cannot be read as foreclosing an argument that they never dealt with.” Waters v.
Churchill, 511 U.S. 661, 678 (1994) (plurality). In fact,
Brand X has “no precedential effect” on whether the doctrine it established is constitutional. Lewis v. Casey, 518
U.S. 343, 352 n.2 (1996). Because the constitutional arguments were “not … raised in briefs or argument nor
discussed in the opinion of the Court … [it] is not a binding precedent on this point.” United States v. L.A. Tucker
Truck Lines, Inc., 344 U.S. 33, 38 (1952). Although Justice Scalia flagged the Brand X decision as “probably unconstitutional,” none of the parties presented the constitutional arguments the Baldwins raise here. 545 U.S. at
1017. Nor did the Brand X majority discuss these constitutional concerns. Therefore, stare decisis cannot excuse
this Court from considering the constitutionality of
Brand X deference now.
Moreover, Brand X’s constitutionality is not susceptible to percolation or burgeoning circuit splits. “It is this
Court’s prerogative alone to overrule one of its precedents.” State Oil Co. v. Khan, 522 U.S. 3, 20 (1997). The
lower courts simply must follow the mandates emanating from this Court. Therefore, it is particularly telling
that a growing number of court of appeals judges—and
Members of this Court—have nonetheless called upon
the Court to reconsider Brand X.
There is no reason to “perpetuate[]” a faulty “practice” just because it has been around for 14 years; in fact
that experience shows that such decisions “should be terminated, not perpetuated.” Driscoll v. Burlington-Bristol
Bridge Co., 86 A.2d 201, 231 (N.J. 1952).
16
In sum, Brand X supplies a mechanism for subverting stare decisis to federal agencies. The Court should
grant certiorari to reconsider Brand X because the “special justification” needed to overturn this precedent is
that Brand X itself does enormous damage to stare decisis. The “special care” this Court—and the courts of appeals—take to preserve their precedents dictates that
Brand X should not be kept on the books. Kisor at 2418.
B. Brand X Is Unworkable
Brand X is unworkable in practice. Before Brand X,
courts seldom explicitly stated whether a statute is silent, truly ambiguous, or unambiguous. Such missing assessments makes Brand X unworkable. Judges had no
inkling that they must utter the “magic words”—“ambiguous” or “unambiguous”—“in order to (poof!) expand or
abridge executive power, and (poof!) enable or disable administrative contradiction of the Supreme Court.”
United States v. Home Concrete & Supply, LLC, 566 U.S.
478, 493 (2012) (Scalia, J., concurring in part and concurring in the judgment).
Justice Scalia sharply criticized the workability of
Brand X in his Home Concrete concurrence. Before
Brand X—and even “pre-Chevron”—no one was aware of
the “utility (much less the necessity) of making the ambiguous/nonambiguous determination” during the “judicial-review analysis.” Home Concrete, 566 U.S. at 493.
Even assuming that an ambiguous statute impliedly
“delegate[s] gap-filling authority to an agency,” that
hardly resolves situations where a pre-Brand X decision
did not even make the “ambiguous/nonambiguous determination.” Id. at 488.
What’s more, the delegation of gap-filling authority is
absent when a statute is silent—as much as, if not more
17
than, when the statute is unambiguous. If the rule were
to the contrary, every instance of Congressional silence
would turn into an open-ended delegation of gap-filling
authority to agencies with no limiting principle. Such
statutory “silence” cannot be an “invitation to regulate.”
Oregon Restaurant & Lodging Ass’n v. Perez, 843 F.3d
355, 356 (9th Cir. 2016) (O’Scannlain, J., dissenting from
denial of rehearing en banc, joined by nine other Judges
of the Ninth Circuit). Thus, Brand X transgressed the
Constitution when it concluded that statutory “silence
suggests … that the [agency] has the discretion to fill
the consequent statutory gap.” 545 U.S. at 997. The court
below took it a step further and said that because Anderson was silent as to whether Section 7502 is silent, ambiguous, or unambiguous, the agency’s permissible reading trumps court precedent under Brand X. App.13a.
However, even assuming Section 7502 is silent as to
whether it was intended to displace the common-law
mailbox rule, such silence should also compel the conclusion that the common law still applies. See Arangure v.
Whitaker, 911 F.3d 333, 337 n.2, 339 (6th Cir. 2018). Silence in this context does not create a gap for the administrative agency to fill. It forms the basis for a statutory
rule of construction—the common-law presumption
canon—which, as explained below, makes Section 7502
clear. That is precisely what the Ninth Circuit had previously determined in Anderson. 966 F.2d at 491.
Anderson (1992), which predated Brand X (2005), did
not use the magic words “ambiguous,” “unambiguous,” or
“silent.” Instead, it simply ruled, based on a straightforward reading of the text of Section 7502 that the “postmark” date of a tax document sent by “United States
mail” can be proved by presenting credible extrinsic evidence. But the court below concluded—based on an extremely sparse statutory-construction analysis—that
Section 7502 is “silent” as to whether it supplements or
18
supplants the common-law mailbox rule. App.11a.6 Because Anderson did not expressly “hold … that our interpretation of the statute was the only reasonable interpretation,” the court below deferred to IRS’s 2011
amended Regulation. App.13a (emphasis in original).
But the court also acknowledged that Anderson “made
clear that our decision … filled a statutory gap” with the
common-law mailbox rule. App.13a.
Brand X presumably applies only to a “reasonable
reading of an ambiguous statute” but not when the statute is unambiguous. United States v. Eurodif S.A., 555
U.S. 305, 315 (2009). Except by the court below, App.11a,
Brand X has not been applied in statutory-silence situations, and if this Court’s statement in Eurodif is any indication, it should probably not apply in statutory-silence
situations because there is “no statutory uncertainty to
be resolved.” 555 U.S. at 315.
More importantly, Brand X is unworkable because it
provides no assurance that following the rule of law and
conforming one’s conduct accordingly will lead to predictable consequences. Litigants like the Baldwins are
doomed if they comply with court precedent, common
law, or the statute. The Baldwins did not know, at the
time they made the fateful decision to mail their refund
claim by regular U.S. mail, that they needed to predict
whether IRS might change its interpretation of Section
7502. Tasking the Baldwins to be omniscient is the antithesis of a workable rule of law.
Every court, in addition to the court below, that has expressly evaluated whether Section 7502 is silent, ambiguous, or unambiguous has said that the statute is “silent” as to how a taxpayer
may prove the postmark date. Sorrentino, 383 F.3d at 1193; Carroll, 71 F.3d at 1231; Lewis v. United States, 942 F. Supp. 1290,
1293 (E.D. Cal. 1996).
6
19
At the time the Baldwins mailed their refund claim
in June 2011, IRS’s now-current rule—allowing only registered or certified mail receipts to prove the postmark
date—was not the law of the land. The law, as it stood in
June 2011 was the Ninth Circuit’s Anderson decision.
Deferring to IRS under Brand X in such situations would
mean that the Baldwins erred in complying with established circuit precedent and erred in not complying with
IRS’s proposed rule when they mailed their refund claim
by regular U.S. mail.
Brand X thus demotes federal-court opinions into
mere advisory opinions and promotes even federalagency proposed rules into governing law. See GarfiasRodriguez v. Holder, 702 F.3d 504, 531 (9th Cir. 2012)
(en banc) (Kozinski, J., “disagreeing with everyone”) (Under Brand X, court rulings are “necessarily provisional
and subject to correction when the agency chooses to
adopt its own interpretation of the statute” and when
“[a]gencies alone can speak … as to what the law
means.”). Such a rule is in direct tension with the most
basic high-school-level understanding of rule-of-law precepts: “fair notice, reasonable reliance, and settled expectations.” Landgraf v. USI Film Prods., 511 U.S. 244, 270
(1994).
The Court should grant certiorari to reconsider
Brand X and provide a workable—and Constitutional—
standard for litigants and lower courts to follow.
C. Brand X Was Wrongly Decided
The Court should grant certiorari in this case to revisit Brand X because it violates due process, Article III
judicial independence, separation of powers guarantees
of the Constitution, and it undermines the judiciary’s
role to say what the law is.
20
1. Brand X Denies Due Process and
Impairs Judicial Independence Under
Article III
Deferring to the agency’s interpretation of a statute
when such construction overrides prior court precedent
violates the Due Process Clause by commanding judges
to exhibit bias toward government litigants. Brand X
deference “[t]ransfer[s] the job of saying what the law is
from the judiciary to the executive.” Gutierrez-Brizuela
v. Lynch, 834 F.3d 1142, 1152 (10th Cir. 2016) (Gorsuch,
J., concurring). Such bias and transfer of power leads to
“more than a few due process … problems.” Id. at 1155.
Brand X removes the judicial blindfold. It requires
judges to display systematic bias favoring agency litigants—and against counterparties like the Baldwins.
Brand X deference thus “embed[s] perverse incentives in
the operations of government” and requires courts to
“bow to the nation’s most powerful litigant, the government, for no reason other than that it is the government.”
Egan v. Delaware River Port Authority, 851 F.3d 263,
278 (3d Cir. 2017) (Jordan, J., concurring). The “risk of
arbitrary conduct is high” and Brand X puts “individual
liberty … in jeopardy” because “an agency can change
its statutory interpretation with minimal justification
and still be entitled to full deference.” Id. at 280. It is a
denial of due process when judges “engage in systematic
bias in favor of the government … and against other
parties.” Philip Hamburger, Chevron Bias, 84 Geo.
Wash. L. Rev. 1187, 1195 (2016).
This Court has held that even the appearance of potential bias toward a litigant violates the Due Process
Clause. See Caperton v. A.T. Massey Coal Co., 556 U.S.
868 (2009). Yet Brand X institutionalizes a regime of
21
systematic judicial bias by requiring courts to “defer” to
agency litigants especially where the agency litigant, as
here, openly ignores or disregards prior court precedent.
Brand X thus forces judges to abandon their own judgment about what the law is and instead consciously substitute the legal judgment of one of the litigants before
them.
All federal judges take an oath to “administer justice
without respect to persons” and to “faithfully and impartially discharge and perform all the duties incumbent
upon [them].” 28 U.S.C. § 453. And federal judges are ordinarily very scrupulous about living up to these commitments. Nonetheless, under Brand X, judges who are supposed to administer justice “without respect to persons”
peek from behind the judicial blindfold and precommit to
favoring the government agency’s position.
Whenever Brand X is applied in a case in which the
government is a party, the courts are denying due process by showing favoritism to the government’s last-intime interpretation of the law. Indeed, judicial proceedings are required to provide “neutral and respectful consideration” of a litigant’s views free from “hostility or
bias.” Masterpiece Cakeshop, Ltd. v. Colorado Civil
Rights Comm’n, 138 S. Ct. 1719, 1729, 1734 (2018) (Kagan., J., concurring).
Judges also abandon their duty of independent judgment when they “become habituated to defer to the interpretive views of executive agencies, not as a matter of
last resort but first.” Valent v. Commissioner of Social Security, 918 F.3d 516, 525 (6th Cir. 2019) (Kethledge, J.,
dissenting) (emphasis added). Under Brand X, “the
agency is free to expand or change the obligations upon
our citizenry without any change in the statute’s text.”
Id. That truth is especially obvious here because Section
7502(a) has not changed in relevant part since 1954. And
22
the common-law mailbox rule was considered “settled”
well before 1884. Rosenthal, 111 U.S. at 193.
Other judges have also properly refused to abdicate
their judicial duty. In MikLin Enterprises, Inc. v. NLRB,
861 F.3d 812, 823 (8th Cir. 2017) (en banc), criticizing
Brand X, the majority explained that applying Brand X
“would leave the Board free to disregard any prior Supreme Court or court of appeals interpretation of the
NLRA.” Thus, refusing to abandon judicial independence, the MikLin majority withheld Brand X deference
from the NLRB’s new interpretation that had effectively
“overruled” this Court’s and the Eighth Circuit’s decisions. Id. at 821.
Brand X mandates that the government litigant win
as long as its preferred interpretation of the regulation
seems “permissible,” even if it is wrong. Here, IRS’s interpretation is the exact opposite of long-standing, wellreasoned decisions of several federal appellate courts. It
casually discards a centuries-old common-law mailbox
rule. It is also contrary to the plain meaning of an Act of
Congress that echoed settled common law. Worse still,
IRS demanded—and received—Brand X deference to its
Notice of Proposed Rulemaking issued in 2004, 69 Fed.
Reg. 56377-01 (Sep. 21, 2004). App.14a. The Regulation,
26 C.F.R. § 301.7502-1 (pre- and post-2011 versions reproduced at App.52a–77a), was not amended until the
Notice of Final Rulemaking was issued in August 2011—
two months after the Baldwins had already mailed their
refund claim. 76 Fed. Reg. 52561-01 (Aug. 23, 2011). The
Baldwins were unable to order their actions in advance
to conform with the law. That violates fundamental ruleof-law precepts.
In addition to the abundant criticism already noted,
several jurists have explicitly urged this Court to revisit
Brand X. See Gutierrez-Brizuela at 1150–51 (2015)
23
(Gorsuch, J., concurring) (“semi-tam[ing]” “some of
Brand X’s more exuberant consequences”); De Niz Robles
v. Lynch, 803 F.3d 1165 (10th Cir. 2015); Garfias-Rodriguez, 702 F.3d 504 (en banc) (Kozinski, J., “disagreeing
with everyone” & Reinhardt, J., dissenting); MarmolejoCampos v. Holder, 558 F.3d 903 (9th Cir. 2009) (en banc)
(per Berzon, J., dissenting, joined by Pregerson, Fisher,
Paez, JJ.). “[E]xecutive agencies” should not be “permitted to … reverse court decisions like some sort of super
court of appeals.” Gutierrez-Brizuela at 1150. The Court
should therefore grant certiorari to revisit Brand X and
restore due process and judicial independence.
2. Brand X Violates the Constitution’s
Separation of Powers
In Kisor v. Wilkie, Justice Gorsuch, joined by Justices
Thomas, Alito, and Kavanaugh, criticized Brand X: “if an
agency can not only control the court’s initial decision but
also revoke that decision at any time, how can anyone
honestly say the court, rather than the agency, ever really determines what the regulation means?” 139 S. Ct.
at 2433 (Gorsuch, J., concurring in the judgment)
(cleaned up). Justice Thomas, who authored Brand X,
criticized it later and explained that it “raises serious
separation-of-powers questions,” “is in tension with Article III’s Vesting Clause,” and “Article I’s [Vesting
Clause].” Michigan v. EPA, 135 S. Ct. 2699, 2712 (2015)
(Thomas, J., concurring). Such concerns are especially
valid in this case where an Article II agency amended its
regulation to overrule Article III court decisions, settled
common law, and the plain text of an Article I act of Congress.
The Constitution provides foundational rules for the
operation of our government. Congress writes the laws.
The Executive Branch enforces them. The Judiciary
24
independently interprets them. But Brand X threatens
to consolidate all three functions in a single administrative agency—here, IRS—and to contravene both the laws
written by Congress and prior judicial interpretations of
those laws.
The Constitution establishes a system of separated
powers: “[T]o avoid the possibility of allowing politicized
decisionmakers to decide cases and controversies about
the meaning of existing laws, the framers sought to ensure that judicial judgments ‘may not lawfully be revised, overturned or refused faith and credit by’ the
elected branches of government.” Gutierrez-Brizuela,
834 F.3d at 1150 (Gorsuch, J., concurring) (quoting Chicago & Southern Air Lines, Inc. v. Waterman S.S. Corp.,
333 U.S. 103, 113 (1948)). Neither an Executive Department official “nor even the Legislature, are authorized to
sit as a court of errors on the judicial acts or opinions of
this court.” Hayburn’s Case, 2 U.S. 409, 410 n.* (1792).
Hence, when the Treasury Secretary nullifies Anderson,
that action is every bit as unconstitutional as was the
War Secretary’s action revising the decision of a federal
court in Hayburn’s Case. Id.
“Yet this deliberate design, this separation of functions aimed to ensure a neutral decisionmaker for the
people’s disputes, faces more than a little pressure from
Brand X.” Gutierrez-Brizuela at 1150; see also De Niz Robles at 1171 & n.5 (collecting pertinent authority).
Brand X “permit[s] executive bureaucracies to swallow
huge amounts of core judicial and legislative power and
concentrate federal power in a way that seems more than
a little difficult to square with the Constitution.”
Gutierrez-Brizuela at 1149.
Justice Scalia, joined by Justices Souter and Ginsburg in part, dissented in Brand X. Justice Scalia called
the majority’s decision “not only bizarre” but “probably
25
unconstitutional.” 545 U.S. at 1017. Indeed, “Article III
courts do not sit to render decisions that can be reversed
or ignored by executive officers.” Id. But that is precisely
what Brand X endorses. The agency that “is party to the
case in which the Court construes a statute … [is] able
to disregard that construction and seek”—and obtain—
“Chevron deference for its contrary construction the next
time around.” Id.
Brand X “emphatically” undermines “the province
and duty of the judicial department to say what the law
is.” Marbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. 137, 177 (1803). The
Court should grant certiorari to resolve this “serious separation-of-powers” problem with Brand X. Michigan v.
EPA, 135 S. Ct. at 2712 (Thomas, J., concurring).
D. Overruling Brand X Need Not Affect the
Applicability or Constitutionality of Kisor
or Chevron
Brand X is somewhat unique among government-litigant-bias doctrines. While Chevron and Kisor are triggered where a court construes a statute or regulation issued sometime in the past, Brand X deals with the order
of events reversed. The clear difference is this: Brand X
requires not merely judicial deference to agency interpretation, but also judicial acquiescence in agency non-deference to judicial interpretation. It is thus a direct assault on judicial authority. If agency action abrogates an
earlier-in-time court decision, Brand X switches on Chevron deference in favor of the government litigant.
Brand X being such a “bizarre” beast, 545 U.S. at 1017,
it can be overruled without necessarily affecting the applicability or validity of Chevron or Kisor.
26
II. ALTERNATIVELY, THE COURT SHOULD GRANT
CERTIORARI TO CLARIFY WHETHER THE BRAND X
DOCTRINE PERMITS AN AGENCY TO DISREGARD
TRADITIONAL STATUTORY-CONSTRUCTION TOOLS
Even if this Court is reluctant to repudiate Brand X,
it still should at least clarify when the case applies.
A. The Court Should Clarify that the First
Analytical Step Before Applying Brand X
Should Be Rigorously Applying Traditional
Tools of Statutory Construction to a
Statute’s Text
The “cursory” statutory-construction analysis employed by the court below is a classic example of “reflexive deference” that this Court should grant certiorari to
reject. Pereira v. Sessions, 138 S. Ct. 2105, 2120 (2018)
(Kennedy, J., concurring). The lower court’s scant statutory-interpretation analysis ignored the traditional, “ordinary tools of statutory construction,” id., the effect of
which was to endorse IRS’s interpretation that ignored,
among other canons of construction, the common-law
presumption canon, and the contra proferentem canon
that applies to tax laws. Int’l Harvester Credit Corp. v.
Goodrich, 350 U.S. 537, 547 (1956) (“[A] question as to
the meaning of a taxing act [is] to be read in favor of the
taxpayer.”). Even if legislative history were to play a role
in this step-one textual analysis (Anderson had evaluated Section 7502 using traditional tools in detail, and
also using legislative history), that history also points to
the speciousness of IRS’s argument.7
Congress enacted Section 7502 “to mitigate the harsh
inequities of a literal adherence to the filing requirements … . Under that section a [tax document] is ‘deemed’ filed as of the date of
the U.S. postmark stamped on the envelope in which it is mailed.”
7
27
This Court has not crafted “explici[t]” instructions
about statutory-construction analysis under Brand X,
which has left lower courts in a state of confusion. Arangure, 911 F.3d at 339–40. Granting certiorari in this case
will enable the Court to alleviate that confusion.
Consider, for instance, the common-law presumption
canon. Where, as here, there is “statutory silence in the
face of existing common law,” “courts presume that general statutory language incorporates established common-law principles … unless a statutory purpose to the
contrary is evident.” Id. at 337 n.2, 339. So, “silence” cannot be automatically equated with “ambiguity.” Id. at
Wells Marine, Inc. v. Renegotiation Bd., 54 T.C. 1189, 1192–93
(1970). The Tax Court has long followed the common-law mailbox
rule: “To establish that a return has been timely filed, we require
reliable testimony or other corroborating evidence of the circumstances surrounding the return’s preparation and mailing.” Hyler
v. Commissioner, 84 T.C.M. 717, 2002 WL 31890047 at *11 (2002).
In 2010, a year before IRS amended the Regulation, the Tax Court
had once again held that “extrinsic evidence is admissible” under
26 C.F.R. § 301.7502-1(c)(1). Van Brunt v. Commissioner, T.C.
Memo. 2010–220, 100 T.C.M. (CCH) 322 (2010). Repeatedly failing
to obtain favorable decisions from the courts, IRS instead promulgated the Regulation and got rid of the court decisions it did not like
on this topic.
Section 7502, however, is
Totally devoid of any language to indicate that Congress intended a registered or certified mailing to be
the exclusive means of proving a postmark. Indeed,
the House and Senate Reports specifically state with
respect to an amendment to IRC § 7502 that ‘the taxpayer, of course, could also establish the date of mailing by other competent evidence (besides registered
or certified mail receipts).’
Kenneth H. Ryesky, Tax Simplification: So Necessary and So Elusive, 2 Pierce L. Rev. 93, 121 & n.192 (2004) (quoting S. Rep. No.
90-1014, at 19 (1968); H.R. Rep. No. 90-1104, at 14 (1968)).
28
338. “[N]or does it automatically mean that a court can
proceed to Chevron step two,” as the lower court did here.
Id.
The common-law presumption canon is “not based on
a normative judgment that the common law is better as
a policy”; “[r]ather, it is based on a descriptive judgment:
Congress legislates against a common-law backdrop and
presumably does not intend to reject that backdrop with
general statutory language.” Id. at 343.8 It would indeed
be hard to come by “an interpretive tool more traditional
than the centuries-old common-law presumption.” Id.
(cleaned up). This Court expressed the same principle
over two centuries ago: “The common law, therefore,
ought not to be deemed to be repealed, unless the language of a statute be clear and explicit for this purpose.”
Fairfax’s Devisee v. Hunter’s Lessee, 11 U.S. 603, 623
(1812); see also Amy Coney Barrett, Substantive Canons
and Faithful Agency, 90 B.U.L. Rev. 109 (2010) (discussing the common-law presumption canon); Cass R. Sunstein, Law and Administration After Chevron, 90 Colum.
L. Rev. 2071, 2120 (1990) (“When the relevant interpretive norm is part of an effort to discern legislative instructions, Chevron is uncontroversially subordinate to
that norm”). Although this Court has “a canons first
Here, for example, Congress knew how to override the
common-law mailbox rule (or restrict mailing methods to registered or certified mail) in Section 7502—but it did neither. See,
e.g., 10 U.S.C. § 1566(g)(2) (requiring actual delivery); 52 U.S.C.
§§ 30104(a)(2)(A)(i), (a)(4)(A)(ii), (a)(5) (abrogating the common-law
mailbox rule, restricting mailing methods); 42 U.S.C. §§ 1395w112(b)(4)(A)(iii), (b)(4)(D)(iv) (preserving the common-law mailbox
rule for payments, but not for claims). See also 39 U.S.C. § 404 (the
postal service follows the common-law mailbox rule); Supreme
Court Rule 29; Fed. R. App. P. 25; Fed. R. Bankr. P. 8011; 38 U.S.C.
§ 7266 (following the common-law mailbox rule).
8
29
rule, … it has not said so explicitly.” Arangure, 911 F.3d
at 339–40 (collecting cases; cleaned up; emphasis added).
Due to lack of explicit instructions from this Court,
lower courts inconsistently apply Brand X. For example,
some courts have concluded that the “common-law presumption canon qualifies as a ‘traditional tool’ of statutory interpretation.” Arangure at 342. The Sixth Circuit,
Arangure shows, gives no deference to agency interpretations in derogation of the common law. Nor do the Second, Fifth, Ninth, Eleventh, and D.C. Circuits.9
The court below, departing from these courts, and
previous panels of the Ninth Circuit, upheld IRS’s interpretation in derogation of the common law. The court declared the common-law presumption canon merely a “dueling principle[] of statutory interpretation,” on par with
IRS’s “equally permissible construction of the statute.”
App.12a. In effect, the court below performed no
See, e.g., Jaen v. Sessions, 899 F.3d 182 (2d Cir. 2018)
(8 U.S.C. § 1401 incorporates the common law presumption of legitimacy); Chamber of Commerce v. U.S. Dep’t of Labor, 885 F.3d
360, 369–70 (5th Cir. 2018) (“absent other indication, Congress intends to incorporate the well-settled meaning of the common-law
terms it uses”); United States v. Garcia-Santana, 774 F.3d 528 (9th
Cir. 2014) (courts use common law at Chevron Step One);
Lagandoan v. Ashcroft, 383 F.3d 983 (9th Cir. 2004) (Congress can
override the common-law presumption with express language;
without express language, Congress is presumed to legislate
against the background of the common law); Garcia-Celestino v.
Ruiz Harvesting, Inc., 843 F.3d 1276, 1292 (11th Cir. 2016) (“Chevron step one” “analysis ends” “[b]ecause Congress indicated by its
silence that … the common law governed”); FedEx Home Delivery
v. NLRB, 849 F.3d 1123, 1128 (D.C. Cir. 2017) (whether a “worker”
is an “employee” or “independent contractor” is a question “of pure
common-law agency principles involving no special agency expertise that a court does not possess”; “this particular question under
the [NLRA] is not one to which we grant the Board Chevron deference or to which the Brand X framework applies”).
9
30
traditional-tool analysis to determine whether Section
7502 is ambiguous, unambiguous, or silent, and instead
jumped straight to Chevron Step Two and concluded that
IRS’s interpretation was “permissible.” Id. That shortcut
approach collapses the whole Brand X–Chevron inquiry
into a single step: Chevron Step Two.
But Brand X did not endorse this game of hopscotch
that skips the traditional-tool analysis. The Court should
grant certiorari to clarify that courts must conduct a
thorough analysis of the statutory text using traditional
tools of statutory construction to determine whether the
statute is truly ambiguous, unambiguous, or silent.
B. The Court Should Specify that Brand X Is
Not a Magic-Words Review of the First-inTime Court’s Decision
The Court should also grant certiorari to indicate
that the Brand X analysis does not turn on whether the
first-in-time court characterized the statute as silent,
ambiguous, or unambiguous. That is because pre-Brand
X courts seldom if ever expressly categorized statutes as
silent or (un)ambiguous. Instead, the Brand X Step One
analysis should look at whether the first-in-time court
performed a traditional-tool analysis regardless of
whether it expressly placed the statute in one of these
three silos. If the first-in-time court did resort to such
analysis, then that first-in-time decision, and not the
later-in-time agency interpretation, should control. In
other words, federal agencies should not be able to trump
judicial decisions that have scrupulously applied traditional tools of statutory construction.
The court below, instead, performed a cursory magicwords review. It said, because Anderson was silent as to
whether Section 7502 is silent, ambiguous, or
31
unambiguous, the court will defer under Brand X to the
agency’s permissible or reasonable reading of the statute. App.13a.
Home Concrete indicates why this clarification is
sorely needed. There, the Court had to evaluate whether
a Treasury Regulation interpreting a statute trumped a
prior Supreme Court decision—Colony, Inc. v. Commissioner, 357 U.S. 28 (1958)—interpreting the tax statute.
In Colony the Court had written that “it cannot be said
that the language is unambiguous.” 357 U.S. at 33. The
Home Concrete majority relied on this standard to conclude that the statute is “now unambiguous,” 566 U.S. at
489 (cleaned up), and declined to defer under Brand X to
IRS’s regulation. In other words, the outcome turned on
how the first-in-time court chose to characterize the statute on the silent–ambiguous–unambiguous continuum.
However, the “now unambiguous” formulation in
Justice Breyer’s majority opinion also seems to suggest
that a court confronted with the question of whether
Brand X applies should look to how the first-in-time
court (Colony) analyzed the text of the statute, not the
label the court used. Home Concrete concluded that when
a prior decision “makes clear” that it is filling a statutory
gap, the statute then becomes “unambiguous” and there
is “no gap to fill,” and consequently the courts should not
defer to the agency’s later-in-time interpretations attempting to re-fill that already-filled gap. 566 U.S. at
489–90.
Furthermore, any permissibility or reasonableness of
agency interpretation is at its lowest ebb when the
agency does not invoke or depend on the agency’s “substantive expertise.” Kisor, 139 S. Ct. at 2417. IRS has no
“substantive” or “special” “expertise” in the common law.
FedEx, 849 F.3d at 1128; see also St. Charles Journal,
Inc. v. NLRB, 679 F.2d 759, 761 (8th Cir. 1982) (NLRB
32
has no “special expertise” in “common law agency principles”); Jicarilla Apache Tribe v. FERC, 578 F.2d 289,
292–93 (10th Cir. 1978) (the “basis for deference ebbs”
when the “interpretive issu[e] … fall[s] more naturally
into a judge’s bailiwick,” such as “elucidat[ing] … a simple common-law property term”).
This Court has confirmed that “[s]tatutes which invade the common law … are to be read with a presumption favoring the retention of long-established and familiar principles.” Isbrandtsen Co. v. Johnson, 343 U.S. 779,
783 (1952). It simply cannot be that Congress abrogated
common law in Section 7502 (its plain words reveal the
opposite), and it cannot be that Congress, through ambiguity or silence, authorized IRS to abrogate the
longstanding common-law mailbox rule. Cf. Rios v. Nicholson, 490 F.3d 928, 931–32 (Fed. Cir. 2007) (“Congress did not intend to abrogate the common-law mailbox rule” by enacting 38 U.S.C. §§ 7266(c)(2), (d)); Savitz
v. Peake, 519 F.3d 1312, 1315 (Fed. Cir. 2008) (concluding that 38 U.S.C. § 7105(b)(1) did not supplant or “abrogate” the common-law mailbox rule).10 Thus, if Brand
X survives, it should apply at most in rare instances
where the meaning of the statute truly cannot be ascertained using ordinary statutory-construction methods.
If this Court is unwilling to overrule Brand X, it could
at least follow the approach the Court took in Kisor. A
rigorous analysis employing ordinary statutory-interpretation tools should resolve this case and many other
Brand X cases. The only “reflexive” portion of a court’s
analysis should be to turn to statutory construction at
the first step. The Court should grant certiorari to make
it clear once and for all that courts’ first resort is
The Third, Eighth, Ninth (under Anderson), and Tenth Circuits have concluded that Section 7502 supplements and does not
supplant the common-law mailbox rule. See supra n.4.
10
33
analyzing the applicable statute using ordinary tools of
statutory construction, including canons of construction.
III. THIS CASE IS AN ATTRACTIVE VEHICLE TO RESOLVE
THE CRITICALLY IMPORTANT QUESTION OF
WHETHER BRAND X SHOULD BE OVERRULED OR
CABINED
This case is an ideal vehicle to answer the questions
presented. The district court applied Anderson instead of
the later-in-time Regulation. The Ninth Circuit, per
Brand X, deferred to the later-in-time Regulation and
discarded Anderson. If the district court is right, the
Baldwins win; if the Ninth Circuit is right, the Baldwins
lose. The questions, therefore, are cleanly presented and
outcome-determinative.
Further, this case has well-developed facts entered
into the record after a full-fledged bench trial, which
makes it an ideal vehicle. No further facts need to be developed; no procedural-posture problems exist like the
ones which crop up in cases coming up to this Court upon
grants of motions to dismiss.
The Brand X questions are front and center, and
when answered, would resolve the case. They are also
critically important questions that affect every single tax
document filed with IRS—that’s at least as many tax
documents as there are taxpayers in the Nation. It is
thanks to Section 7502 that the date “April 15” has obtained such cultural significance, and perhaps notoriety
too, as “Tax Day.” IRS’s website, for example, says: “File
on: April 15th,” When to File, IRS (May 1, 2019),
https://bit.ly/2kl0LrM, and clarifies further, “Your return
is considered filed on time if the envelope is properly addressed, postmarked, and deposited in the mail by the
due date.” Id. IRS’s argument against the Baldwins
34
based on its amended Regulation that registered or certified mail receipts are “the exclusive means to establish … evidence of delivery” suggests otherwise. 26
C.F.R. § 301.7502-1(e)(2)(i), App.74a.
Justice Story once refused to defer to a Treasury Department interpretation of an Act of Congress when
Treasury had argued that its construction is “entitled to
great respect.” Justice Story said, “the judicial department has … the solemn duty to interpret the laws;
and … in cases where its own judgment shall differ from
that of other high functionaries, it is not at liberty to surrender, or to waive it.” United States v. Dickson, 40 U.S.
141, 161–62 (1841). Justice Story had it right, and the
Brand X doctrine has it wrong. The Baldwins’ case is an
optimal vehicle to discard the Brand X doctrine—or at
least narrow it considerably.
CONCLUSION
The writ should issue.
Respectfully submitted, on September 23, 2019.
ROBERT W. KEASTER
CHAMBERLIN & KEASTER LLP
16000 Ventura Blvd.
Suite 301
Encino, CA 91436
PHILIP HAMBURGER
MARK CHENOWETH
ADITYA DYNAR
Counsel of Record
NEW CIVIL LIBERTIES ALLIANCE
1225 19th St. NW, Suite 450
Washington, DC 20036
(202) 869-5210
Adi.Dynar@NCLA.
onmicrosoft.com
Counsel for Petitioners
This is a copy of a public record, reproduced as it was published. It is not legal advice, and it may not be the version a court would rely on. Check the official source before you cite it.