Not part of any conspiracy-they just have a personal financial interest in the outcome that leads to an appearance of impropriety.
No salaried judge should sit on a tax case. They should recuse themselves and yield to a special master (maybe a retired state judge) without the personal financial interest in the success of the income tax.
Actually, the judges have a financial interest in declaring the income tax unconstitutional. They pay taxes on their salary; declaring the income tax unconstitutional would result in an increase of their takehome pay. They are immune from the downside because their compensation cannot be reduced under any circumstances, and they have lifetime appointments. Congress would just have to suck it up and pay them from some other means of raising revenue.
No salaried judge should sit on a tax case. They should recuse themselves and yield to a special master (maybe a retired state judge) without the personal financial interest in the success of the income tax.
In order to have someone in charge of the case who has no interest in the outcome of the case, you'd have to select someone whose tax burden is precisely ZERO--i.e., they pay no income taxes, and do not get the EITC.
Retired state judges do not meet this criterion.
Couldn't you just add him to the conspiracy? He could have government retirement benefits.
No salaried judge should sit on a tax case. They should recuse themselves and yield to a special master (maybe a retired state judge) without the personal financial interest in the success of the income tax.
No judge has a personal financial interest in the success of the income tax. They get paid before anyone else in the government and regardless of what kind of tax system exists by constitutional mandate.
Constitution, Article III. Section. 1.