Numerous tax protester arguments have been raised asserting that the federal income tax is unconstitutional, including discredited claims that the Sixteenth Amendment was not properly ratified.
If the 14th Amendment was not properly ratified, neither, it would seem, was the 13th, which was adopted under similar circumstances, and slavery should be legal.
He used the changes as part of the basis for his contention that those states had not properly ratified the Amendment.
Benson claimed that no states, or only a few states (variously reported as two states or four states), had properly ratified the Amendment.
Also, as is indicated above, Benson is precluded in this action from taking the position that the Sixteenth Amendment was not properly ratified.
Further, even if Ohio's ratification was not valid, the Amendment was ratified by 41 other states, well in excess of the 36 needed for it to be properly ratified.
Judge Fox, the transcript shows, concluded that no court would accept any argument that the 16th Amendment was not properly ratified and therefore invalid.
Shall we brace ourselves to hear once more the long-rejected arguments that the 14th Amendment is not really law because it was not properly ratified?
The party believes that the 16th Amendment was never properly ratified and must be repealed.
Benson's "Sixteenth Amendment was not properly ratified" argument was rejected.