Just a short update: In Myers v. Commissioner, 928 F.3d 1025 (D.C. Cir. 2019), on which I blogged here, the majority of a 3-judge panel held that the 30-day deadline in section 7623(b)(4) to file a whistleblower award petition in the Tax Court is not jurisdictional and is subject to equitable tolling. In a petition for en banc rehearing in Myers, on which I blogged here, the DOJ argued that not only was the panel wrong, but it had set up a clear conflict with the Ninth Circuit in Duggan v. Commissioner, 879 F.3d 1029 (9th Cir., 2018). In Duggan, the Ninth Circuit held that the very-similarly-worded 30-day deadline in section 6330(d)(1) to file a Collection Due Process petition in the Tax Court is jurisdictional and not subject to equitable tolling. On October 4, 2019, the D.C. Circuit issued an order denying the DOJ’s petition for en banc rehearing. In the order, the court noted that none of the 11 D.C. Circuit judges (plus Senior Judge Ginsburg, who wrote the opinion) requested a vote on the petition for en banc rehearing. Thus, that means that even dissenting Judge Henderson did not ask for a vote on the petition.
Now, the Solicitor General will have to decide how upset the government is and whether to file a petition for certiorari with the Supreme Court. Will the apparent indifference of all of the judges of the D.C. Circuit to reviewing the matter en banc suggest to the Solicitor General that maybe a majority of the Supreme Court will also think the Myers opinion is correct?
About Carlton Smith
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