Talk:Mabel Walker Willebrandt

Prohibition
(Source: NY Times - 1 Apr 1925)

AAG Walker gave harsh testimony to the Couzens Committee. She described that seizing breweries was a weak tactic and only 'in name'; that the news media greatly exaggerated seizures to make bigger stories rather than expose the failings of Prohibition. Walker described how seizures 'are a drain on appropriations'. She described that corporate crony contractors hired 'guards' at $5 per day to watch seized liquor; meanwhile, mobsters, in turn, paid a higher 'wage' to those same 'guards' to look the other way.

Walker insisted that if Department of Justice really wanted to enforce Prohibition, then they needed to (1) hire uncorruptable, real DoJ agents to perform enforcement and (2) destroy seizures so that they did not return to criminal possession.

(Personal comment: Yep, Coolidge and his DoJ administration committed corporate cronyism to hire 'guards'; out-sourcing was alive and well during Prohibition.)

148.167.132.220 (talk) 03:10, 4 July 2013 (UTC)Sharon Anne McCartney148.167.132.220 (talk) 03:10, 4 July 2013 (UTC)

known opponent of prohibition?
From what i heared from a documentary she saw the prohibition as her religious mission and fanatically tried to enforce it, id like to see some references for the statement that she was an opponent of prohibition in the beginning. --Eizieizz (talk) 02:59, 22 September 2013 (UTC)

So would I. Is this discussed in any of her writings? 2600:1010:B05A:B6E3:4528:E122:2230:895A (talk) 18:12, 21 May 2022 (UTC)

Missing discussion of her legal theories
I'm not sure if this intentional, but the opening paragraph seems to be missing a lot of general information, like her accomplishment of being the first woman to head the Tax Division. There is also no discussion of her legal theory to try bootleggers and organized crime members for tax evasion or United States v. Sullivan. The theory was proven sound by prosecuting South Carolina bootlegger Manley Sullivan. The articles that most prominently discuss her legal theory are Al Capone and United States v. Sullivan.

This is from the discussion of Al Capone and Tax Evasion:

"Assistant Attorney General Mabel Walker Willebrandt recognized that mob figures publicly led lavish lifestyles yet never filed tax returns, and thus could be convicted of tax evasion without requiring hard evidence to get testimony about their other crimes. She tested this approach by prosecuting a South Carolina bootlegger, Manley Sullivan. In 1927, the Supreme Court ruled in United States v. Sullivan that the approach was legally sound: illegally earned income was subject to income tax; Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. rejected the argument that the Fifth Amendment protected criminals from reporting illegal income."

This is from the opening paragraphs in United States v. Sullivan:

"The case also served as the legal test for prosecution of Al Capone for tax evasion by Assistant Attorney General Mabel Walker Willebrandt. Willebrandt theorized illegally earned income was subject to income tax, and she tested her theory using Sullivan. Once the theory was found sound, she moved to prosecute Capone in 1931."

Jeffrey Walton (talk) 02:28, 6 December 2020 (UTC)