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modified innocent spouse relief, the separate liability election,
and equitable relief.
The majority opinion rests primarily on the fact that the
Court has held previously in Fernandez v. Commissioner, supra,
and Butler v. Commissioner, supra, that the Court has
jurisdiction to decide a claim for relief under section 6015(f).
As I read the majority’s opinion, those decisions compel the
conclusion that we have jurisdiction in this case. I disagree.
The cases of Fernandez v. Commissioner, supra, and Butler v.
Commissioner, supra, are factually distinguishable from the
setting at hand.8 Although it is true that both of those cases
7(...continued)
text of the statute as a whole and the statutory scheme crafted
by Congress for relief from joint liability. See FDA v. Brown &
Williamson Tobacco Corp., 529 U.S. 120, 132-133 (2000). I
conclude that the phrase does not empower the Court to consider
granting to any individual any form of relief available under
sec. 6015 simply because the individual petitions the Court for
relief from joint liability. Instead, in a stand alone
proceeding such as this, Congress has allowed the Court to
provide relief under sec. 6015 only to an individual described in
sec. 6015(e)(1). I construe Congress’s use of the term “the
individual” in sec. 6015(e)(1)(A) to refer only to those
individuals described in sec. 6015(e)(1); i.e., “an individual
against [1] whom a deficiency has been asserted and [2] who
elects to have subsection (b) or (c) apply”.
8 I also note that the version of sec. 6015(e)(1) that the
Court applied in Fernandez v. Commissioner, supra, and Butler v.
Commissioner, supra, has since been amended by inserting after
“individual”, the words “against whom a deficiency has been
asserted and”. Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2001 (CAA),
Pub. L. 106-554, app. G, sec. 313(a)(3)(A), 114 Stat. 2763A-641
(2000). That amendment is applicable to this case in that it
“shall take effect on the date of the enactment of this Act”
(continued...)
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