Robert B Clarkson

515 Concord Avenue

Anderson SC 29621

(864) 225-3061; clarksonrobt@sbcglobal.net

March 31, 2008

 

The Honorable Thomas Wells

Judge, US Tax Court

400 2nd St NW

Washington DC 20217

 

Dear Judge Wells:

 

On March 18, 2008, at about 2:30 pm in the US District Courthouse in Columbia SC at the session of the US Tax Court with you presiding, you ordered me to leave the courthouse. Later as I sat on the bench outside, two tough and fierce looking US Marshalls came to me and told me that you had modified the order so that I could use the first floor of the Perry Courthouse.

 

I had not created any disturbance in the courtroom that day nor at any other time. I was simply sitting very quietly in the audience part of the courtroom. I was not talking, not standing up, not causing a distraction. I had been there all day the previous day and all that morning without creating any commotion.

 

You had called me up front before you and stated that I had advised people to file frivolous pleadings or I had filed frivolous pleadings. I responded that I had not aided anyone to file pleadings that had ever been classified by a Judge as frivolous. In thirty years, I have not advised anybody or assisted anyone in filing in any court, any arguments published in the IRS frivolous or groundless list.

 

You ordered me removed from the courthouse on the grounds of assisting American citizens with their tax cases, not on any conduct in the courtroom. You penalized me for actions not involving any activities before you or in your courtroom.

I have been assisting people with civil procedure for three decades and not once in these thousands of cases have I submitted any frivolous pleading nor advised any one else to do so. None of my work has been found in any court to be frivolous.

 

Copies of my work can be found on my website: www.patriotnetwork.info. You will not see anything there which has ever been classified as groundless or on the published list of frivolous/groundless arguments.

 

Some of the people that I help find frivolous pleading from other people and file them. I do not manage or control the cases or the litigants. I can not stop anyone from filing any papers in any court.

 

I advise many people including those with cases in tax court to obey the rules, to file timely and not to send in incorrect pleadings. I have assisted many people in cases before you and nobody objected. On the day before my ejection from your courtroom, you ruled in behalf of two people that I had assisted. Apparently my work is not all that bad.

 

When you told me that you were going to remove me from your courtroom, I requested that I receive a written order on this. You stated that you would hand down a written decision. In my opinion, judges do not have the authority to remove me from the courtroom for something that may have happened months earlier. I suspect that your information about me came ex parte from an attorney in the district counsel’s office. You received an unsubstantiated rumor about me that simply is not true.

 

If I can have a written order on this issue, I can submit a brief so we can have some resolution on this allegation. My position is that I have a Constitutional right to sit and observe court cases which by law must be open to the public. If this is not true, I wish somebody would tell me and show me where the law has been changed.

 

I was in tax court at that time to gather information for an article I was writing. I publish a newsletter and website.

 

I even have the right to tell people to obey laws and show them how to do it. American citizens have a right to access to the courts and everybody in court had somebody to help or advise them. Like the clerk of court, I give procedural advice and much instruction on the court rules. My website has my work and you can order my books and videos to see for yourself that I advocate strict adherence to the law and for pro se litigants to obey the rules of civil procedure.

 

I think the tax court would appreciate me advising and assisting people to obey the Rules.

 

Sincerely,

Robert Clarkson