September 5, 2000 A.D.

Rep. Tom Campbell, M.C.

15th Congressional District

910 Campisi Way, Suite 1-C

Campbell, California

 

Subject:  FOIA request for Act of Congress

          Enacting Title 26, United States Code

 

Dear Representative Campbell:

 

Attached please find a copy of my recent FOIA request to the U.S. Department of Justice in San Jose, California, for a certified copy of the Act of Congress (if any) which specifically enacted Title 26 of the United States Code into positive law.

 

I realize that the Freedom of Information Act is not enforceable upon you, as a voting Member of the Legislative Branch of the federal government.  (FOIA exempts the entire Congress.)

 

However, the many questions raised by the legal status of Title 26 have become so important and far-reaching, I would like you to consider this letter as a formal request for comparable reply from the offices of the Legislative Counsel, and the Congressional Research Service.

 

Please note that a 1982 edition of the United States Code contains an open admission, by the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, that Title 26, U.S.C., has not been enacted into positive law.  Identical evidence can be found in the table of Titles found in the opening pages of the United States Code Service (“USCS”) and also the United States Code Annotated (“USCA”), i.e. no asterisk (“*”).

 

Please either confirm, one way or the other, whether Title 26 of the United States Code has ever been enacted into positive law.  If it has been enacted, please supply me with the proper citation(s) from the Statutes at Large and the corresponding Public Law citation(s).

 

Representative Campbell, thank you very much for your consideration.

 

 

Sincerely yours,

 

/s/ Donald E. Wishart

 

Dr. Donald E. Wishart, D.M.D.

c/o 5150 Graves Avenue, Suite 12-C

San Jose 95129

CALIFORNIA, USA

 

Attachment:  FOIA request for Act of Congress

             Enacting Title 26 into positive law;  and,

             Statement by House Speaker Thomas P. O’Neill, 1983:

 

 

"Preface" statement dated January 14, 1983, and included in the 1982 edition of the United States Code by the Honorable Thomas P. O'Neill, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, states that:

 

"Because many of the general and permanent laws that are required to be incorporated in the Code are inconsistent, redundant, and obsolete, the Office of the Law Revision Counsel of the House of Representatives has been engaged in a continuing, comprehensive project authorized by law to revise and codify, for enactment into positive law, each title of the Code.  Titles 1, 3, ...23, 28, ... have been revised, codified, and enacted into positive law and the text thereof is legal evidence of the laws therein contained.  The matter contained in the other titles of the Code is prima facie evidence of the laws."

 

Please note that Title 26 is missing from the above.