The "National Clean Elections Lawsuit" was filed in federal court in New York in September 2007, and was served in all 50 states in early November 2007.
In a case involving Richard Michael Simkanin, a tax protester who supported the Foundation and who died while serving a prison sentence for Federal tax offenses, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has stated that the We the People Foundation ("WTP"): In one case, Robert L. Schulz filed motions in a federal court to quash administrative summonses[13] issued by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) seeking testimony and documents in connection with an IRS investigation.
The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed the dismissal of the taxpayer's motions for a lack of subject matter jurisdiction because there was no actual case or controversy as required by Article III of the Constitution.
[14] The summons was issued to PayPal to obtain information about donations to (or purchases made at) an internet web site maintained by Schulz or We the People Foundation.
[15] In this case, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit ruled: "Schulz's constitutional arguments challenging the IRS's authority to enforce the tax laws are without merit.
"[20] On August 9, 2007, the United States District Court for the Northern District of New York ruled that some the Foundation's activities constituted the promotion of an illegal tax shelter by means of a statement or statements that the promoter "knows or has reason to known is false or fraudulent as to any material matter" under Internal Revenue Code section 6700 (26 U.S.C.
"[22] According to the New York Times, "[t]his information would make it easy for the Internal Revenue Service to identify people who followed the illegal advice and for the Justice Department to prosecute them for tax crimes.
[28] At 3:55 pm on May 5, 2008, Schulz filed a document with the court asserting that he had turned the material over to the United States attorney's office earlier that day.
[30] The group had previously said: "We make no claim regarding Mr. Obama, other than he has refused to provide proof of his eligibility to hold the office of the President of the United States, as he is required to do by the Constitution.
[36] On October 31, 2013, the United States Tax Court ruled that the Internal Revenue Service could "proceed with the various collection actions" against the Foundation and its related entity, the We The People Congress, Inc.[37]