Rand Paul sues Obama over foreign banking law

[mello]

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/...n-banking-law/

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articl...nk-disclosures

[Brian4Liberty]

Rand Paul sues Obama over foreign banking law
By Ralph Z. Hallow - The Washington Times - Tuesday, July 14, 2015

Sen. Rand Paul on Tuesday officially sued the Obama administration, seeking to stop it from enforcing a federal banking law that has led large numbers of Americans overseas to renounce their citizenship.

In a move with implications for his 2016 presidential bid, Mr. Paul joined six other plaintiffs in a suit filed by Republicans Overseas Action (ROA), arguing that the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) is unconstitutional.

The lawsuit maintains Mr. Paul has unique standing as a plaintiff since it argues the Obama administration violated the right of himself and other 99 senators to advise and consent on agreements with foreign countries.
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The lawsuit argues the agreements the Treasury Department reached with foreign countries to gain access to Americans’ banking information violates the Constitution’s Article II, Section 2 that requires two-thirds of U.S. senators present and voting to approve a foreign treaty.

The suit also claims the law has inflicted unprecedented hardship on American expatriates, preventing them from getting banking services overseas and causing many to renounce their citizenship to avoid onerous invasions of their privacy and financial penalties.
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“This lawsuit speaks volumes about the Obama administration’s lawlessness and disregard for the Constitution,” said Jim Bopp Jr., lead attorney for the plaintiffs who, collectively, have eight separate constitutional claims against the law and its enforcement mechanisms.
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“Americans overseas are suffering egregious unconstitutional violations of their privacy and are facing draconian fines by the vigorous enforcement of the law by the Obama administration,” said Mr. Bopp. “The vast majority of overseas Americans are law-abiding middle class Americans, but the Obama administration treats them all as tax cheats.”

“We want the federal court to stop Obama’s Internal Revenue Service by immediately issuing a preliminary injunction that will protect Americans overseas until a trial can be held by the court.,” Mr. Bopp said.
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Mr. Paul has long opposed FATCA and has introduced a bill to eliminate what he says are its unconstitutional provisions.

He has said the intent of the law was to “prevent tax evasion by increasing access to overseas bank accounts held by U.S. citizens. However, any law enforcement benefits have been vastly outweighed by the deleterious effects of FATCA on economic growth and the financial privacy of Americans.”

The problem he said is that FATCA “requires the financial institutions of foreign countries to register directly with the IRS, and to provide financial information on the accounts of U.S. citizens — regardless of whether or not these U.S. citizens are suspected of tax evasion.”

Mr. Paul argued that a “failure to comply with these requirements subjects that foreign financial institution to a 30 percent withholding of U.S.-derived revenues.”

This he argues has had the practical effect of forcing those institutions to relinquish any association with U.S. customers — “and to avoid direct investment in the United States. It goes without saying that overseas investment in the U.S. is an important engine of our economic growth and prosperity. FATCA endangers an estimated $25 trillion in foreign capital currently invested in the U.S.”

What may be even more troubling, he said, is that the implementation of FATCA has allowed the Treasury Department “to make independent decisions with respect to the sovereignty of foreign nations and the privacy of United States citizens. In order to implement this law, Treasury has initiated intergovernmental agreements, citing the intent to engage in reciprocal information sharing with other nations.

“But Treasury, without the consent and authority of Congress, will force U.S. financial institutions to provide the bank account information of private customers to foreign nations,” he said.
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More: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/...n-banking-law/

[Dianne]

Wow, I love this. I hope he gets some coverage for this. I had no idea how Americans were boxed in, until I tried to open a foreign bank account a couple of weeks ago. The U.S. has a dragnet on any American trying to get THEIR OWN MONEY, out of this Bank of America Government.

Even Peter Schiff's investment strategies exclude Americans now.

[RonPaulMall]

If he wins the Primary he needs to make a point of going over to London or Berlin and give a speech about his proposed bill before the local ex-pat community. He can clean up on the overseas vote like no other Republican has ever before.

[Tinnuhana]

Ex-pats maintaining their US citizen status can vote in primaries, too, can't they?

[acptulsa]

Oh, good. Now we can shut up the 'At Least Trump is Doing Something Exciting' trolls for quite a while.

'Is Trump suing Obama? Is he putting his subpoenas where his big mouth is? Well then.'

[georgiaboy]

Best headline I've seen in a long time.

[DevilsAdvocate]

I can't help but notice that this directly benefits Peter Schiff

[Brian4Liberty]

Best headline I've seen in a long time.

Good headline, not much media coverage. Now if Trump did it, we would 24x7 coverage everywhere, discussing all aspects of the issue...

[dude58677]

Cliven Bundy and this is Jay Adkissons worst nightmare. Love it!

[Brian4Liberty]

Rand Paul and Five Expats Sue the Feds Over FATCA
Challenge asserts that the IRS can’t rifle through the bank information of Americans just because they live abroad
By Matt Welch | Sep. 3, 2015

As has been noted frequently in this space, the odious 2010 Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), which requires foreign banks in U.S.-friendly countries to cough up information about and sometimes money from their American customers, has led to the predictable result of said financial instituions treating Americans like radioactive lepers.
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In mid-July, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) joined five American expatriates (who between them live in Canada, the Czech Republic, Israel, and Switzerland) in a lawsuit [PDF] against the Treasury Department, the Internal Revenue Service, and the U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. The suit challenges FATCA, among other reasons, on grounds of unconstitutional executive-branch overreach (having to do with post-FATCA bilateral agreements about bank-info-sharing between the feds and foreign governments), and for violating the Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights of citizens living abroad.
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Good on Rand Paul.
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More: http://reason.com/blog/2015/09/03/ra...sue-the-feds-o