Watch Out for Legalese!

What is legalese?

All law is a study of definition. This is what lawyer do; this is what theologians do. They study the meaning of words. There is no law without words. Law must be expressed in compete sentences or it is not law. A list of fictional numbers alluding to the fact you owe something is not law. You must read sentences and then study their definitions . . . or you will step into a lawyer’s trap.

Those who control the definition control the contract!

Legalese are “words of art” that have a different meaning in law than they do in Webster’s Dictionary or in normal conversation. These are “words that have a particular meaning in a particular area of study, and have either no meaning or a different meaning outside that field” (Barron’s Dictionary of Legal Terms).

For example, all government form use the term “person” and ask you to fill in your name. But, this is a trick. You are not a “person.” A “person” in law is an artificial entity, corporation, or officer, or fiction. If you fill in your name, you fall into the trap. You are not required by God to enter a trap.

Because “term” have a different meaning in the IRC and on government forms, average Americans including lawyers and judges are often mislead about what the law says and to whom it applies. Here are a few of the “terms” and “words of art” in the IRC.

• The word “may”can mean “must” or “shall[1]” except where constitutional issues are at stake.
• The word “shall” is usually handled like an imperative, except where constitutional issue are at stake[2].
• The word “include”[3] means “to exclude” or “to confine.”
• The word “California” is a “foreign country.”
• The word “California” is “without the United States.”
• The word “United States” can refer to the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, or Guam.[4]
• The word “citizen” means a member of United States, Inc.[5]
• The word “income” means gains separated from capital.[6]
• The word “person” is not people but a reference to “corporations.”[7]
• The word “employee” is not a person working in the fifty states, but a government official.[8]
• The word “employer” is not a boss in the private sector, but the United States Government who pays government workers in the public sector.[9]
• The term “trade or business” refers to a government official working for the United States government.[10]
• The word “wages” is not compensation for work performed, but earning received in contract from the United States government.[11]
• The word “State” is the “District of Columbia”[12].

[1] “MAY – An auxiliary verb qualifying the meaning of another verb by expressing ability, competency, liberty, permission, possibility, probability or contingency” (Black’s Law Dictionary, 6th Ed.).

[2] “The word ‘shall’ in a statue may be construed to mean ‘may,’ particularly in order to avoid a constitutional doubt,” Fort Howard Paper Co. v. Fox River Heights Sanitary Dist., 26 NW 2nd 661. “ . . . to avoid unconstitutionality of a statute, ‘shall’ will be deemed equivalent of ‘may,’ Gow v. Consolidated Coppermines Corp., 165 Atl. 136. “’Shall’ in a statue may be construed to mean ‘may’ in order to avoid constitutional doubt,” George Williams College v. Village of Williams Bay, 7NW2d6. “As against the government the word ‘shall’ when used in statutes is to be construed as ‘may,’ unless a contrary intention is manifest,” Cairo Fulton r.R. Co. v. Hect, 95 U.S. 170.

[3] “include . . .  is defined to comprise within’; ‘to hold’; ‘to contain’; ‘to shut up’; and synonyms are ‘contain’p [enclose’; comprehend’; ‘embrace’, Montillo Salt Co. v. Utah, 221 U.S. 452, at 455, 466.

[4] 1939 IRC Definition §3797(9)(a)} “United States—The term ‘United States,’ when used in a geographical sense, includes only the State, [the territorial States and NOT the 50 states] the Territories of Alaska and Hawaii and the District of Columbia.” (brackets mine).

[5] There is only one definition of “U.S. citizen” in the Internal Revenue Code

“26 CFR & 31.3121(e) State, United States, and citizen

(b) . . . the term ‘citizen of the United States’ includes a citizen of the commonwealth of Puerto Rico or the Virgin Islands, and effectively January 1, 1961, a citizen of Guam or American Somoa.”

[6] Income has its own definition in tax law: Income, as defined by the Supreme Court is, “gains and profits as a result of corporate activity and profit gained through the sale or conversion of capital assets,” [Stanton v. Baltic Mining Co. 240 U.S. 103, Stratton’s Independence v. Howbert 231 U.S. 399. Doyle v. Mitchell Bros. Co. 247 U.S. 179, Eisner v. Macomber 252 U.S. 189, Evans v. Gore 253 U.S. 245, Merchants Loan & Trust Co, v. Smietanka 225 U.S. 509 (1921)].

[7] The term “person” in the statute does not ususally include a natural born Citizen, but is a reference to artificial entities, 14th Amendment persons, “citizens of the United States,” or people living in the federal zone created by legislative action in the District of Columbia, “Since in common usage the term ‘person’ does not include the Sovereign, statutes employing that term are ordinarily construed to exclude it” U.S. v. Cooper, 312 US 600, U.S. v General Motors, 2 FRD 528, U.S. v. United Mine Workers, 330 US 258.

[8] In Title 26, U.S.C., Subtitle C, Chapter 24, Section 3401(c), we are given a definition of an “Employee:”

Employee
For purposes of this chapter, the term ”employee” includes an officer, employee, or elected official of the United States, a State, or any political subdivision thereof, or the District of Columbia, or any agency or instrumentality of any one or more of the foregoing. The term ”employee” also includes an officer of a corporation. [Note the term of limitation, “purposes of this chapter.”]

[9] The term “employer” is defined at 26 U.S.C. 3401(c) which identifies the “employer” as one for whom the “employee” works. This means that the meaning of the term “employer” is limited to those entities listed in Section 3401(c)—the U.S. government– circular argument that obfuscates issues. The term “employer” does not imply to any non-government employers or business.

[10] “§7701. Definition (a) When used in this title, where not otherwise distinctly expressed or manifestly incompatible with the intent thereof—(26 Trade or business—The term “trade or business” includes performance of public office” (Emphasis added). Further, one should note the term “includes” is a term of limitation; i.e., if a word is not in the list, it is not intended to be there!

[11] A “wage” is earnings from the United States government. It is not the same as “income” or “salary” or “profit.”  “Reasonable compensation for labor or services is not profit” Laureldale Cemetery Assoc. v. Matthew, 47 Atlantic 2d. 277 (1946). Section 1402(d): “Employee and wages: the term ‘employee’ and ‘wages’ shall have the same meaning as in chapter 21 (Section 3101 and following, relating to the Federal Insurance Contributions Act)” Note the absence of the words “for the purposes of this chapter;” i.e., the definitions here can be used for other portions of the tax code which are limited to the nation’s four island possessions. Section 3104(d) defines employee as an officer, employee, or an elected official of the United States. §3401(a) “WAGES—For the purposes of this chapter [chapter 24, Collection of Income Tax at Source on Wages], the term ‘wages’ means all remuneration (other than fees paid to a public official) for services performed by an employee [of the government].”

[12] “State- The term ‘State’ shall be construed to include [only] the Territories and the District of Columbian where such construction is necessary to carry out provision of this title.” 1939 Code [§3797 (a) (10)]; “The term State shall be construed to include [only] the Territory of Hawaii and the District of Columbia . . . “ Amended 1954 Sec. 7701(a)(10).