BACKGROUND:
The word "person" is used in many laws. If you don't know what
the term means, you might think that you are one of these.
American Law and
Procedure, Vol 13, page 137, 1910:
"This word `person' and its scope and bearing in the law,
involving, as it does, legal fictions and also apparently natural
beings, it is difficult to understand; but it is absolutely
necessary to grasp, at whatever cost, a true and proper understanding
to the word in all the phases of its proper use ... A person
is here not a physical or individual person, but the status
or condition with which he is invested... not an individual
or physical person, but the status, condition or character borne
by physical persons... The law of persons is the law of status
or condition."
Natural (biological) people are not "persons" in most statutes.
TITLE 26
> Subtitle
F >
CHAPTER 79 > Sec. 7701.
Sec. 7701.
- Definitions
(a) When used in this
title, where not otherwise distinctly expressed or manifestly incompatible
with the intent thereof -
(1) Person
The term ''person''
shall be construed to mean and include [throughout the Internal Revenue
Code] an individual, a trust, estate, partnership,
association, company or corporation.
TITLE 26
> Subtitle
F >
CHAPTER 75 >
Subchapter
D > Sec. 7343.
Sec. 7343.
- Definition of term ''person''
The term ''person''
as used in this chapter [Chapter
75] includes an officer or employee of a corporation, or a member
or employee of a partnership, who as such officer, employee, or member
is under a duty to perform the act in respect of which the violation
occurs
[NOTE:
This is the "person" for the purposes of some of the miscellaneous
penalties under the Internal Revenue Code]
TITLE 16
> CHAPTER
75 > Sec. 5502.
Sec. 5502.
- Definitions
As used in this chapter
-
(7) The term ''person''
means any individual (whether or not a citizen or national of the United
States), any corporation, partnership, association, or other entity
(whether or not organized or existing under the laws of any State),
and any Federal, State, local, or foreign government or any entity of
any such government.
26 CFR §301.6671-1 Rules for application of assessable penalties
[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 26, Volume 17,
Parts 300 to 499]
[Revised as of April
1, 2000]
From the U.S. Government
Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 26CFR301.6671-1]
[Page 402]
TITLE 26--INTERNAL REVENUE
Additions to the Tax
and Additional Amounts--Table of Contents
Sec. 301.6671-1 Rules for application of assessable
penalties.
(b) Person defined.
For purposes of
subchapter
B of
chapter
68, the term ``person'' includes
an officer or employee of a corporation, or a member or employee of
a partnership, who as such officer, employee, or member is under a duty
to perform the act in respect of which the violation occurs.
[NOTE:
This is the "person" for the purposes of MOST penalties under the ENTIRE
Internal Revenue Code]
26 CFR §301.7701-6 Definitions; person, fiduciary
Title 26: Internal Revenue
PART 301—PROCEDURE AND ADMINISTRATION
Definitions
(a) Person. The term person includes an individual,
a corporation, a partnership, a trust or estate, a joint-stock company,
an association, or a syndicate, group, pool, joint venture, or other
unincorporated organization or group. The term also includes a guardian,
committee, trustee, executor, administrator, trustee in bankruptcy,
receiver, assignee for the benefit of creditors, conservator, or
any person acting in a fiduciary capacity.
Black's Law Dictionary,
4th Edition, p 1300
A person is such, not because he is human, but because rights
and duties are ascribed to him. The person is the legal subject
or substance of which the rights and duties are attributes. An individual
human being considered as having such attributes is what lawyers
call a "natural person." Pollock, First Book of Jurispr. 110. Gray,
Nature and Sources of Law, ch. II.
[Black's Law Dictionary, 4th Edition, p 1300]
Black's Law Dictionary,
4th Ed., p 1300
A county is a person in a legal sense, Lancaster Co. v. Trimble,
34 Neb. 752, 52 N.W. 711; but a sovereign is not; In re Fox, 52
N.Y. 535, 11 Am.Rep. 751; U.S. v. Fox 94 U.S. 315, 24 L.Ed. 192
....
[Black's Law Dictionary, 4th Ed., p 1300]
Spooner v. McConnell,
22 F 939 @ 943:
"The sovereignty of a state does not reside in the persons who
fill the different departments of its government, but in the People,
from whom the government emanated; and they may change it at their
discretion. Sovereignty, then in this country, abides with the constituency,
and not with the agent; and this remark is true, both in reference
to the federal and state government."
[Spooner v. McConnell, 22 F 939 @ 943]
Glass v. Sloop Betsey,
3 Dall. (U.S.) 6 (1794):
"... Our government is founded upon compact. Sovereignty was,
and is, in the people"
[Glass v. Sloop Betsey, 3 Dall. (U.S.) 6 (1794)]
Lansing v. Smith, 4 Wend
(N. Y.) 9 (1829), 21 Am.Dec. 89:
"People of a state are entitled to all rights which formerly
belong to the King, by his prerogative."
[Lansing v. Smith, 4 Wend (N. Y.) 9 (1829), 21 Am.Dec. 89]
4 Wheat 402:
"The United States, as a whole, emanates from the people... The
people, in their capacity as sovereigns, made and adopted the Constitution..."
[4 Wheat 402]
Yick Wo v. Hopkins, 118 U.S. 356 (1886), page 370:
"While sovereign powers are delegated to ... the government,
sovereignty itself remains with the people.."
Yick Wo is a powerful anti-discrimination case. You might get
the impression that the legislature can write perfectly legal laws,
yet the laws cannot be enforced contrary to the intent of the people.
It's as if servants do not make rules for their masters. It's as
if the Citizens who created government were their masters. It's
as if civil servants were to obey the higher authority. You are
the higher authority of Romans 13:1. You as ruler are not a terror
to good works per Romans 13:3. Imagine that! Isn't it a shame that
your government was surrendered to those who are a terror to good
works? Isn't it a shame that you enlisted to obey them?
[Yick
Wo v. Hopkins, 118 U.S. 356 (1886)]
Julliard v. Greenman: 110 U.S. 421 (1884):
"There is no such thing as a power of inherent sovereignty in
the government of the United States .... In this country sovereignty
resides in the people, and Congress can exercise no power which
they have not, by their Constitution entrusted to it: All else is
withheld."
[Julliard
v. Greenman: 110 U.S. 421 (1884):]
Wilson v. Omaha Indian Tribe 442 U.S. 653, 667 (1979):
"In common usage, the term 'person' does not include the sovereign,
and statutes employing the word are ordinarily construed to exclude
it."
[Wilson
v. Omaha Indian Tribe 442 U.S. 653, 667 (1979)]
U.S. v. Cooper, 312 U.S. 600,604, 61 S.Ct 742 (1941):
"Since in common usage the term `person' does not include the
sovereign, statutes employing that term are ordinarily construed
to exclude it."
[U.S.
v. Cooper, 312 U.S. 600,604, 61 S.Ct 742 (1941)]
U.S. v. United Mine Workers of America, 330 U.S. 258 67 S.Ct 677 (1947):
"In common usage, the term `person' does not include the sovereign
and statutes employing it will ordinarily not be construed to do
so."
[U.S.
v. Cooper, 312 U.S. 600,604, 61 S.Ct 742 (1941)]
U.S. v. General Motors
Corporation, D.C. Ill, 2 F.R.D. 528, 530:
"In common usage the word `person' does not include the sovereign,
and statutes employing the word are generally construed to exclude
the sovereign."
[U.S. v. General Motors Corporation, D.C. Ill, 2 F.R.D. 528,
530]
Church of Scientology
v. US Department of Justice (1979) 612 F2d 417 @425:
"the word `person' in legal terminology is perceived as a general
word which normally includes in its scope a variety of entities
other than human beings., see e.g. 1, U.S.C. para 1."
[Church of Scientology v. US Department of Justice (1979) 612
F2d 417 @425]
Perry v. US, 294 U.S. 330 (1935):
"In United States,
sovereignty resides in people... the Congress cannot invoke the sovereign
power of the People to override their will as thus declared.",
Black’s Law Dictionary,
Second Edition (A. D.1910), p. 577)
Homo vocabulum est naturae; persona juris civillis. Man
(homo) is a term of nature; person (persona) of civil law.
[Black’s Law Dictionary, Second Edition (A. D.1910), p. 577)]
1 U.S.C. §8 : "Person"
TITLE 1 >
CHAPTER 1 > § 8
§ 8. “Person”, “human
being”, “child”, and “individual” as including born-alive infant
(a) In determining
the meaning of any Act of Congress, or of any ruling, regulation, or
interpretation of the various administrative bureaus and agencies of
the United States, the words “person”, “human being”, “child”, and “individual”,
shall include every infant member of the species homo sapiens who is
born alive at any stage of development.
(b) As used in this
section, the term “born alive”, with respect to a member of the species
homo sapiens, means the complete expulsion or extraction from his or
her mother of that member, at any stage of development, who after such
expulsion or extraction breathes or has a beating heart, pulsation of
the umbilical cord, or definite movement of voluntary muscles, regardless
of whether the umbilical cord has been cut, and regardless of whether
the expulsion or extraction occurs as a result of natural or induced
labor, cesarean section, or induced abortion.
(c) Nothing in this
section shall be construed to affirm, deny, expand, or contract any
legal status or legal right applicable to any member of the species
homo sapiens at any point prior to being “born alive” as defined in
this section.