Update on “Unauthorized Substances”
September 7th, 2007 -
Not too long ago, I wrote an essay about Tennessee’s “Unauthorized Substances Tax”, you will find it below. (I was in one of those moods, it has some crackly-crunchy delicious irony if I dare say so!)
Briefly, the Tennessee State legislature had enacted an unconstitutional tax bill that would allow a person who possesses or intends to possess illegal drugs to pay, in advance, a tax that would disallow confiscation of his personal property in the unlikely event that he was “busted”. Get it? Go to the government, buy a tax stamp, keep your SUV or speed-boat in the unlikely event you’re busted.
Well, well. The Tennessee Court of Appeals has ruled that a lower court was correct, the “Unauthorized Substances Tax” violates citizens’ rights to due process and to keep from self-incrimination.
As one of the few citizens left in this country who love FREEDOM more than government “protection”, I don’t have many opportunities to gloat, so please indulge me, dear reader.
The courts perhaps were not as acerbic as I in how they said it, but they upheld my position in this matter.
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