U.S. v. Snider

• Citation: 502 F.2d 645
• Decision Date: 19 July 1974
• Docket Number: Nos. 73-1938 and 73-1939,s. 73-1938 and 73-1939
• Parties: , 74-2 USTC P 9548, 74-2 USTC P 9620 UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Lyle B. SNIDER, Appellant. UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Lyle B. SNIDER, and Sue T. Snider, Appellants.
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (4th Circuit)

Page 645

502 F.2d 645

27 A.L.R.Fed. 885, 74-2 USTC P 9548, 74-2 USTC

P 9620

UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Lyle B. SNIDER, Appellant.

UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Lyle B. SNIDER, and Sue T. Snider, Appellants.

Nos. 73-1938 and 73-1939.

United States Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit.

Argued Jan. 10, 1974.

Decided July 2, 1974, Rehearing En Banc Denied July 19, 1974.

Karla W. Simon and Richard D. Hobbet, Durham, N.C. (Hobbet & Simon, Durham, N.C., on brief), for appellant in No. 73-1938.

Norman B. Smith, Greensboro, N.C. (Smith, Carrington, Patterson, Follin & Curtis, Greensboro, N.C., on brief), for appellants in No. 73-1939.

William L. Osteen, U.S. Atty., for appellee in Nos. 73-1938 and 73-1939.

Before WINTER, CRAVEN and WIDENER, Circuit Judges.

CRAVEN, Circuit Judge:

In our view, these are cases of symbolic speech. In No. 73-1939 the defendants declined to participate in the traditional ceremony of rising upon entrance and departure of the presiding judge and were cited for contempt. In No. 73-1938 defendant engaged in hyperbole-- claiming 3 billion dependents on a tax withholding form-- and was charged with a violation of 26 U.S.C. 7205. In the latter criminal tax case we hold the government failed to prove an essential element of the offense. In the contempt case we hold that refusal to rise is not 'misbehavior (which) obstructs the administration of justice' within the meaning of 18 U.S.C. 401. In neither case do we find it necessary to decide whether the first amendment bars prosecution. Both convictions will be reversed with instructions to enter verdicts of acquittal.

Lyle and Sue Snider are Quakers. They moved to North Carolina in August 1971 after Lyle was employed as a teacher at Carolina Friends School in Chapel Hill. Their Quaker background ¹ soon led them to join the Society of Friends Meeting in Durham. ² They lived an ascetic life-- residing in a farmhouse without running water and subsisting as vegetarians. According to their testimony and that of other members of the Durham Meeting, their concern for the consistency of their beliefs with their actions grew. They were particularly concerned with that portion of the Quaker Discipline ³ which opposed war in any form. The Discipline consisted of 'Queries' and 'Advices' which each Quaker was to read and consider individually. the query on war asked:

Do we endeavor to live in the virtue of that light and power that takes away the occasion of all wars, seeking to do our part in the work of reconciliation between individuals, groups, and nations? Do we faithfully maintain our testimony against military participation in war? Are we trying to build a world order to prevent war and to insure a just and durable peace?

The Advice on witnessing for peace ⁴ admonished:

Take care in your relationship with others that you respect and cherish each man for men of all races and nationalities have a glow within their beings which unites all men as brothers. Take care also, therefore, to maintain a consistent witness for peace, opposition to war, and to all acts of violence or coercion, that you may remain in accord with the timeless guidance of the Inner Light.

Believing that they could not follow the Advice nor answer the Query in the affirmative while voluntarily paying taxes, a large portion of which was used for military purposes, appellants decided that they could no longer voluntarily pay their taxes. The decision, they testified, was not made overnight. In college both had participated in protests aimed at ending the Vietnamese conflict. In March 1972 they sought a refund for their 1971 taxes on a theory of violation of their 'freedom of religion.' ⁵

On May 30, 1972, Snider submitted to his employer an Employee's Withholding Allowance Certificate (Form W-4) which was dated a day earlier. On line 1, calling for 'Total number of allowances you are claiming,' Snider had written '3 billion.' Together with the W-4 Form he enclosed a letter, addressed to 'U.S. Government, Department of the Treasury, Internal Revenue Service' explaining his claim. It read:

Dear Friends, We are claiming 3 billion exemptions on our W-4 form, because we are becoming more and more aware of our responsibility to our 3 billion fellow human beings all over the world. The military establishment of this country threatens the peace and security of every person on earth. Our country's military is destroying life on a horrifying scale in Southeast Asia, and it threatens to expand this destruction to other areas of the globe. Our responsibility to our fellow men leads us to resist this military establishment by refusing to pay willingly any of our tax money to it. We cannot continue to contribute money to the death and destruction which our military wreaks in Southeast Asia or to the fear which it generates in people the world over. We also refuse to pay our taxes willingly to the U.S. Government on the ground that we are conscientiously opposed to any and all wars. We have a strong Christian faith which is the basis of our opposition to war and violence among men. We are conscientiously opposed to the use of violence to settle conflicts and we are committed to removing the causes of violent conflict. We connot in good conscience support a government which devotes over 60 percent of its resources to war. We must work to change the priorities of that government and its people. As one of the most powerful military nations on earth, we must start leading the world toward peace. We are not trying to avoid our responsibilities to the people of this country and the world by refusing to pay our taxes. We will pay our share of money and resources to life-affirming, positive programs such as medical care, welfare, psychological care and counseling, and education, to name a few. We are called by God to affirm life and love with our resources and to resist and eliminate war and violence among men.

'In peace and love,' (s) Lyle Snider and Susan Snider

The letter and the W-4 Form were forwarded by the school's business manager to the District Director of the Internal Revenue Service, together with a letter from the business manager inquiring as to any action which the school should take in the matter. During the summer, while Snider was working with the American Friends' Service Committee in West Virginia, the school ignored the symbolic claim of 3 billion dependents and continued to withhold from Snider's paycheck on the basis of four dependents, the number listed on his previous W-4 Form. Upon his return at the end of the summer, there having been no reply to the school's inquiry to IRS, the school returned to Snider the sums that had previously been withheld. The school's faculty, in its capacity as a Quaker Meeting, shortly thereafter declared its support of Snider and its belief his position was one of conscience.

On December 15, 1972, after investigation by an IRS Special Agent confirmed that Snider was entitled to only four allowances (dependents) as previously claimed, Snider was arrested. Some two months later the grand jury returned an indictment against Snider, pursuant to 26 U.S.C. 7205, ⁶ for willfully supplying his employer with 'false and fraudulent' information. ⁷

After a plea of not guilty, Snider was brought to trial on June 12, 1973. As court was convened, the clerk-crier's command that 'All rise' went unheeded by a number of persons in the courtroom including the defendant and his wife. Despite the district judge's explanation of his understanding of the reasons for the rising requirement and the express request that Mr. and Mrs. Snider stand, each replied that he could not, in good conscience, do so. ⁷ Snider was cited a total of 16 times /8/ throughout the trial for contempt of court; his wife was cited only at the initial convening.

During the trial the motivation for Snider's having claimed 3 billion dependents became apparent-- his religious belief that he could not voluntarily pay his taxes. The sincerity of his motivation was not seriously questioned at trial and we have no reason to doubt it. Equally clear, however, was the fact that Snider submitted the W-4 Form knowing that, according to the definition of 'dependents' on the form, he was entitled to no more than four allowances. This act was admittedly deliberate, though, according to Snider's testimony and that of his wife, he was unsure as to whether the act was protected by that portion of the first amendment which vouchsafes the free exercise of religion.

After seven communications to the judge, four returns for reinstruction (including a dynamite charge after deadlock), and approximately eight hours of deliberation over two days, the jury found Snider guilty. He was sentenced to eight months and, after summary contempt proceedings under Rule 42(a), given an additional 30 days for contempt. Sue Snider received a tenday sentence, suspended for two years, for contempt.

I.

In the tax case appellant Snider contests his conviction under section 7205 on six grounds: (1) that the statute, as applied to him, is unconstitutional as an infringement of his right to the free exercise of religion; (2) that it was error for the district judge not to grant his motion for judgment of acquittal at the conclusion of the government's case on the ground that the government had failed to prove two essential elements of the crime charged, viz., that Snider had supplied 'false or fraudulent' information and that he had acted 'willfully;' (3) that the trial judge erroneously charged the jury as to the meaning of 'false' and 'willfully' in section 7205 so as to entitle Snider to a new trial; (4) that the failure to resubmit the entire charge to the jury upon the jury's request for reinstruction on the meaning of 'false or fraudulent' was an abuse of discretion and amounted to prejudicial error because the portion of the instruction which was reiterated was favorable to the government; (5) that the...