Opinion
15454-21P
09-29-2023
IFEOMA EZEKWO, Petitioner v. COMMISSIONER OF INTERNAL REVENUE, Respondent
ORDER
Albert G. Lauber Judge
By Order of Dismissal served September 19, 2023, this passport case was dismissed as moot in accordance with the mandate of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. On September 25, 2023, petitioner filed at docket entry #50 a Motion for Reconsideration of our Order of Dismissal. We denied that Motion on September 29, 2023. Two weeks previously she had filed, at docket entries ##43-48, more than 1,300 pages of documents, including copies of complaints she has filed in various courts seeking damages and injunctive relief against the IRS, IRS officials, and the Department of Justice, alleging violations of (among other things) 28 U.S.C. § 1331, 42 U.S.C. § 1983, and the First, Fourth, Fifth, Eighth, Ninth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.
On September 27, 2023, respondent filed a Motion to Seal. Respondent contends that the documents petitioner filed at docket entries ##43-48 and 50 should be sealed from public view because they contain unsupported allegations against a specific IRS employee that are likely to cause harm and embarrassment. This is the second time respondent has been forced to seek this relief. By Order served May 25, 2022, we sealed from public view an earlier filing by petitioner that contained similar scurrilous material.
Tax Court Rule 103 permits the Court to "make any order which justice requires to protect a party or other person from annoyance, embarrassment, oppression, or under burden or expense." We will order that the documents filed at docket entries ##43-45, 47, 48, and 50 be sealed for the reasons identified in respondent's Motion.
Respondent notes that the filing at docket entry #46 does not need to be sealed because the Court has already stricken that filing as a duplicate.
In consideration of the foregoing, and for cause, it is
ORDERED that respondent's Motion to Seal filed September 27, 2023, is granted. The documents filed on September 13, 2023, at docket entries ##43-45, 47, and 48, and petitioner's Motion for Reconsideration of Order filed on September 25, 2023, at docket entry #50, are sealed from public view and not made part of the Court's public record in this case. The sealed documents shall be retained by the Court in a sealed file which shall not be opened for inspection by any person or entity except by Order of the Court.