- 4 - to society as a whole. We find these and the rest of petitioner’s arguments to be unfounded and frivolous. Petitioner’s legal arguments do little more than recite law or legal principle which is irrelevant, taken completely out of context, or otherwise misapplied. “We perceive no need to refute these arguments with somber reasoning and copious citation of precedent; to do so might suggest that these arguments have some colorable merit.” Crain v. Commissioner, 737 F.2d 1417, 1417 (5th Cir. 1984). Furthermore, many of petitioner’s arguments advocate amendment or repeal of the AMT. This Court is not the proper place for these arguments. The function of this Court is to accurately and justly apply the laws as they were written by Congress. Nevertheless, we briefly address one aspect of petitioner’s arguments. Throughout the trial and in petitioner’s various documents filed in this Court, including his brief, petitioner focuses on his inability to conduct discovery in this case. Petitioner misunderstands the nature of discovery. The purpose of discovery in this Court is to ascertain facts which have a direct bearing on the issues before the Court, not to conduct a “fishing expedition”. Estate of Woodard v. Commissioner, 64 T.C. 457, 459-460 (1975). There are no factual disputes in the case at hand--respondent merely calculated petitioner’s AMT liability under the relevant statutes using information which petitionerPage: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 Next
Last modified: May 25, 2011