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Larry Becraft on Statutes at Large, FES Austin, 2012/12/15
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Jun 5, 2025
Tax attorney Larry Becraft discusses how to analyze the contents of the Statutes at Large, especially on taxes, as it has evolved, at the Free Enterprise Society meeting in Austin, Texas, Dec. 15, 2012.
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it started passing these
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laws and one right after another the
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laws are just published in a set of
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books called the United States statutes
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at
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large now you can go to a law library
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and if you're going to look at these
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these original laws of the United States
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Congress they're going to be on a rows
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and rows and rows of books now if we had
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all of the United States statutes large
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here in this room they would say see
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where that indentation is over there you
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know let's just imagine from that wall
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taking all of that wall right there you
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would have a nice set of federal books
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United States statutes at large and in
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them you can pull out you know one
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volume and you can see how the laws that
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congress enacts are just placed there
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one right after
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another and the way you find a
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particular law when you're looking at
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you know if you're reading a case or if
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you're reading some legal
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Treatise how you find a particular
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federal law if they're making a citation
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to the United States statutes at large
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the first number is the volume number
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which you can see on the spine of a
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book The it'll have you know like 12
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stat St St a that stands for the that's
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an abbreviation for the statutes at
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large and then the second number beyond
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that is the page where that law appears
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or that act of Congress appears so you
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can TW turn to page
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of a law cited as 12 stat 432
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and what you'll find is one of the legal
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tender acts of Congress passed during
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the Civil War now all of those
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laws that you could see uh along a wall
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if you were in a law library all of the
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public laws are in that stack of books
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as Steve the stack of CDs as Steve was
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describing during the course of his
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presentation and I strongly encourage
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people to you know one of the things
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that I think is real important in this
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movement is for people to be conversent
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you know we're this a lot of this battle
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against the system is a legal battle you
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know to me there's three parts or three
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prongs of what we're trying to fight you
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know against abusive government we have
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the public relations prong and a lot of
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people are interested in that prong you
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know we need to be going out and
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presenting our issues to the public at
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large through this public relations
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function that's one way that we can
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carry out this battle another way we can
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carry out this battle is what I call the
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um you know legislative proposition you
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know we could have a whole bunch of
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people like Phil Hart who were involved
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in you know Phil Hart was an Idaho
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legislator we have a number of other
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people that are in the legislature one
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one of whom was Ron Paul you know we
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could have people in our movement
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contacting public officials in the
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legislative branch and trying to explain
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to them you know we've got some problem
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we' like it to be legislatively
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addressed that's another prong of this
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movement a third prong of this movement
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do does involve law you know we have
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people here that are concerned about the
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tax issue we have people here that
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concerned about the money issue you know
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based on our studies you know like in
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reference to the money issue a lot of
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people can study a lot of real important
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works and one important work that I
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think is real important that people
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should study is Edwin vieira's book
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called Pieces Of Eight now it's not just
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one book it's really two volumes and you
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if you can get it from either Edwin
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Vieira Pieces Of Eight or you can get on
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uh some of the get on the internet and
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look for somebody that's trying to sell
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a copy and I think that there are some
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copies of Edward Beer's boook Pieces Of
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Eight that's available but in that work
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Edwin lays out you know the complete
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history of the money issue in this
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country I mean in excruciating detail
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starting off in the early 1700s coming
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all the way forward today if you want to
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know something about the money issue I
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would encourage you to read Pieces Of
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Eight but you know one of the things
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that we can do uh in in this movement is
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something that relates to the legal
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battle I I give you some
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examples years ago I ran into a guy by
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name of danne Von Bri and brewart he was
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this guy that was in operating a little
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organization called the United States
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bill rights Foundation us b.org that's a
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website danne was living in Washington
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DC he's a he's a lawyer he was also a
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sharpshooter and so he was real
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interested in in the money issue he came
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along after he formed this this
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organization United States Bill of
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Rights
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foundation and he wanted to find a place
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to live in Washington DC and so he
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rented a house from a guy by the name of
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Dick
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hel now let me tell you who dick hel is
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do y'all remember several years ago the
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United States Supreme Court came out
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with a second amendment decision hel
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against DC y'all remember that case went
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all the way to the United States Supreme
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Court and the Supreme Court said hey the
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Second Amendment is personal doesn't
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relate just solely to the militia and it
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guarantees what we think of is our our
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right to keep and bear arms as an
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individual right that's what the hel
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case decided now let me tell you how we
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got into that position you know if you'd
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ask me in the late 80s late 90s or any
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time of the 90s even in the early 2000s
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you what my view was would be of how the
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courts would really constru through and
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and give te to the uh Second Amendment I
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would have said well they're probably
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going to do something less than they did
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in the hel decision but what happened in
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the hel decision danne and dick got
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together they knew that they we there's
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something needed to be done about the
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gun control laws in Washington
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DC they went through the right fact
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pattern to raise the the issue of the
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Constitutional validity of the ban gun
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ban in Washington DC you know for
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example what they did in dick hel's case
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is they had dick run down and and
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approach the uh public officials in the
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District of Columbia and try to register
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a handgun and of course they denied him
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and that gave him standing to challenge
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the constitutionality of those DC gun
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laws there were some other parties that
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got involved you know uh back around
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2003 2004 you know the Second Amendment
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crowd was making decision hey we need to
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make a constitutional attack against the
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restrictive gun laws in Washington DC
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ultimately that resulted in a number of
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lawsuits being filed dick Keller was one
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of the parties along with a whole bunch
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of other parties well they they filed
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the lawsuit in Washington DC got shot
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down there they go up on appeal to the
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United States court of appeals for the
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for the District of Columbia and from
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there they went to the United States
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Supreme Court and do we not have
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something that's incredibly beneficial
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in that effort by the Second Amendment
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crowd to come along and Institute a
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lawsuit to challenge the
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constitutionality of the DC gun ban
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that's in effect what it was and look at
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the results how many of you are familiar
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with the hel decision raise your
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hand well for those of you that haven't
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you know I'm I'm just telling you what
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it is you know the hel decision was real
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important following along on the heler
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decision uh once the hel decision came
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out I think that there might have been
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at most a day
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that elapsed between here the hel
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decision comes
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out and a lawsuit being filed in Chicago
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the McDonald case the McDonald case
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raised the constitutionality of
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Chicago's
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gunman and that case you know here we
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have heler decided the McDonald case
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from the seventh circuit challenging the
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constitutionality of the Chicago gun ban
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it also went to the United States
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Supreme Court and there the un States
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Supreme Court you know H dealt with just
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you know something is going in in the
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nation's capital where that's in article
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168 Clause 17
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jurisdiction you know the nation's
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capital Washington DC well the next
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logical thing that had to be done was
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now let's take on a state or a city you
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know that has a real restrictive gun ban
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and see what rights we have regarding
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the Second Amendment and inside the
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states well that Chicago case it also
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went to the United States Supreme Court
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Donald against Chicago and the Supreme
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Court came out and said hey look here's
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what we said in the H case and now we're
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saying that the second amendment applies
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to the states and the Second Amendment
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of protection that's embodied in the
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Second Amendment you know the protection
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afforded to you know the citizen the
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population in reference to the Second
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Amendment at the federal level is now
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also applicable to the states so I I
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just simply note this one part one prong
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of this battle does indeed involve
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litigation in courts and a lot of people
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you know there's you know even Steve was
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making some comments about you know gee
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we can't get any any place in the in the
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in the courts no if you sit out and you
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plan things I think we can you know the
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condition of the courts their protection
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of the system hey that's just you know
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the sunrises in the East and our lives
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are center around the fact that the sun
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rises in the East you know the fact that
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the courts have a certain condition
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that's just a fact of life and it it has
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a direct relationship to how we engage
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in litigation now you know I make a
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direct comparison between engaging in
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litigation and you know other activities
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of the movement um as I told you earlier
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this morning I got involved with the
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movement in 1979 when I ran into Tupper
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Saucy you know a good friend of mine is
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John cotm who runs an organization
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called sa a patriot Fellowship you know
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I've known John since
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1984 you know John's a good friend of
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mine but I disagree with him in certain
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respects and uh John's approach has been
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well let's just be good foot soldiers
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and just just hang in there and the way
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we're going to be bring about favorable
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change is we're just going to hang in
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there and convince our friends and
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neighbors that they got to come over to
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our side well you know that that process
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of educating the masses you know well i'
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I've got three three decades under my
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belt and you know I've seen the movement
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you know be small at times and I've seen
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the movement large at times you know the
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most recent time that it was large was
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during the activities of Ron Paul
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running for
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president and you but even now that
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that's died down you know the movement
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kind of contracts so there's an EB and
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flow inside the movement but you know
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I'm telling you that what I observed
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over three decades you know this process
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of going out and trying to convince our
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friends and neighbors to come on our on
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over our side you know it it really has
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it's open ended when we're going to
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reach a a
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conclusion and so that's something you
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you know while is important for us to
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get out there and spread the word and
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talk to people you know I I just simply
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observe this fact you know when do we
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achieve a goal using that method you
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know when do we uh reach a
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milestone and uh while we need to
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continue that I do think that there's a
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lot of things that can be done uh
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through litigation and that an example
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of that is what happened with with the
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Second Amendment cases here that we've
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all seen in the last four and five years
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now having said that you let me
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introduce John
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Green and John I want you to introduce
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yourself a little bit more than than I
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do John
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Green is an old cop from
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Houston right not not that old
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[Music]
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well but he went to law school he became
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a Texas lawyer you know I I've always
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thought of him as somebody from
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Louisiana But Here recently this
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Texan moved to the
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Northwest and now he lives at elevation
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what 35,000 ft 25 2700 all right and and
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and and they and they have snow there
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right now yes okay but John John is one
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of these committed Patriots he's been
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involved for the in the fight for a long
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time uh the guy that was in the back of
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room our farmer from Athens Tom sugas
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who left because his wife called him uh
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he won't make her a presentation but in
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L thereof we've got John Green and I
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think John has just now completed
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loading uh a money issue presentation is
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that well if I'm going to do mine and
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Tom's I got to kind of combine them so
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okay good so how much time do I
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have well we're we're going to be uh
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finishing the meeting how many people
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here
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