Latest 2 Cases This Week: Feshbach v. Department of Treasury Internal Revenue Service (11th Cir.), Campbell v. City of Gardendale (Ala.)

Law and Non-Legal Entitlements: Kate Manne’s Entitled: How Male Privilege Hurts Women

LESLEY WEXLER

Illinois law professor Lesley Wexler comments on philosopher Kate Manne’s recent book, Entitled, in which Mann tackles “privileged men’s sense of entitlement” as a “pervasive social problem with often devastating consequences.” Wexler praises Manne’s work as “illuminating” and calls upon lawyers and law scholars to ask how such entitlements might best and safely be challenged and reallocated, and how new more egalitarian entitlements might be generated and enforced.

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Feshbach v. Department of Treasury Internal Revenue Service

Court: US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit

Docket: 19-10060

Opinion Date: September 9, 2020

Judge: Jordan

Areas of Law: Tax Law

The Eleventh Circuit affirmed the bankruptcy court's conclusion that debtors' 2001 tax liability was not dischargeable under 11 U.S.C. 523(a)(1)(C) because debtors "willfully attempted . . . to evade or defeat" that liability. The court found substantial evidence of attempted evasion and concluded that the bankruptcy court did not clearly err in finding that debtors acted willfully when they redirected their funds away from paying their debt and toward their personal luxuries. The court has held that excessive discretionary spending constitutes circumstantial evidence of willfulness. Furthermore, the bankruptcy court also inferred willfulness from debtor's exploitation of the offer-in-compromise process.

Campbell v. City of Gardendale

Court: Supreme Court of Alabama

Docket: 1180778

Opinion Date: September 4, 2020

Judge: Greg Shaw

Areas of Law: Civil Procedure, Government & Administrative Law, Tax Law

Jay Campbell, on behalf of himself and a certified class of "other persons similarly situated," appealed the grant of summary judgment on claims challenging the constitutionality of two municipal taxes adopted in 2013 by the City of Gardendale in connection with Gardendale's planned creation of a municipal school system. After review, the Alabama Supreme Court concluded Campbell did not demonstrate that the Gardendale school taxes were rendered invalid by operation of Local Amendment 14. The Court therefore pretermitted discussion of the alternate arguments for affirmance presented by Jefferson County and Smallwood. The judgment of the trial court was affirmed.