On Oct. 27, 2020, following a swift yet politically fraught confirmation, Amy Coney Barrett replaced the late Ruth Bader Ginsberg as the ninth sitting justice on the Supreme Court. In 2017 and 2018, this column reviewed Circuit Court opinions authored by Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh in an attempt to foresee how each might approach criminal tax cases that come before the court. In her brief tenure on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, Justice Barrett sat on panels that decided five criminal tax cases. Unfortunately, Justice Barrett did not write any majority, concurring or dissenting opinions in those cases and none of them addressed controversial issues.

Justice Barrett did, however, write unanimous opinions in two civil tax cases: A.F. Moore & Associates v. Maria Pappas, 948 F.3d 889 (7th Cir. 2020), in which the court concluded that the Tax Injunction Act did not bar a Constitutional challenge to Cook County’s tax assessment scheme, and VHC v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, 968 F.3d 839 (7th Cir. 2020), in which the court rejected a family business’s attempt to deduct as bad debts payments made to a family member. Although these decisions do not foreshadow how Justice Barrett will address “hot button” issues that will come before the court in the years to come, they are noteworthy for the thoughtful approach taken to the issues presented.

‘A.F. Moore’

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