Stories credited to Above the Law, by publication date. ChamberLight collects articles that mention the officials it tracks, so this shows its own coverage of this source, not how much the source publishes.

Stories from Above the Law
Shaded: ChamberLight collected no stories, or almost none, from any outlet (a gap in its collection, not in the outlet’s publishing)

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Month	Stories	All outlets
October 2025	1	47
November 2025	1	79
December 2025	0	27
January 2026	0	87
February 2026	0	180
March 2026	0	1,094
April 2026	0	4,537
May 2026	0	none collected
June 2026	0	none collected
July 2026	0	none collected
August 2026	0	1 (collection gap)
September 2026	0	598

Who they cover

Party of the officials these stories are mainly about, across all 2 officials named. A story counts once for each official it is mainly about, so the split is over 2 story–official pairs, from 2 stories.

Republican50% · 1 pair
Party not recorded50% · 1 pair

Most covered

Stories mainly about each official, and their share of the source’s 2 stories.

Article tone

ChamberLight’s article analysis assigns each story a tone toward the official it covers. It describes the coverage of that official, not Above the Law’s stance, and reader votes do not change it. 2 stories.

Good Look: 0 (0%)
Mixed: 1 (50%)
Informational: 0 (0%)
Bad Look: 1 (50%)

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Articles served from abovethelaw.com

Senator And Wife Sued For Over $5M In Unpaid Taxes And Agree To Pay Hours Later

Sen. Jim Justice of West Virginia and his wife, Cathy, reached an agreement with the I.R.S. to pay over $5 million in back federal income taxes. This agreement comes hours after the Department of Justice’s Tax Division filed a civil lawsuit in federal court against the Justices for the unpaid taxes. The senator claims that the lawsuit was politically motivated. Justice, a Republican, took office in January 2025, replacing Democrat-turned-independent Joe Manchin who chose not to run for reelection. Prior to that, he was the governor of West Virginia, initially as a Democrat and then switching to the Republican party. The complaint filed on November 24, 2025, alleges that the Justices owe $5,164,739.75 for income taxes from 2009 that were assessed on November 25, 2015. In 2009, Justice sold one of his coal companies to Russian coal company Mechel for $436 million in cash and shares. Looking at the dates may raise questions. First, if the income tax was from 2009, why was it assessed on November 25, 2015? In most cases, the taxes are assessed when the taxpayer files their tax returns, with the earliest date being April 15 of the following year. Some people file extensions and file by October 15 of the following year. If the tax was assessed five years after the due date, it is usually because the tax returns were filed five years late or because there was a reassessment due to a tax audit. Since the case has been settled, it is assumed that the Justices are not challenging the assessment date. The next popular question would be whether the IRS can legally collect on a tax that is 15 years old. By law, the IRS has 10 years from the date of assessment to collect the balance in full. The date of assessment is used instead of the due date of the tax return because the tax amount due is unknown until the taxpayer files the tax return. In rare cases of habitual nonfilers, the IRS can issue substitute for returns (SFR) which acts as a substitute return without claiming any eligible deductions. When these SFRs are filed by the IRS, that becomes the assessment date and the 10-year time limit begins then. The 10-year limit is administratively extended in certain circumstances, usually when the IRS is forbidden by law to collect. The two most common cases are when the taxpayer files bankruptcy and when the taxpayer files an Offer in Compromise which proposes to settle the debt for less than they owe. When either a bankruptcy or Offer in Compromise is filed, collection actions are stopped until bankruptcy is lifted or a settlement offer is rejected. But in extreme cases, the government can extend the 10-year collection statute of limitations by filing and winning a civil lawsuit, which is what they did with the Justices. The 2009 tax was assessed on November 25, 2015, and the lawsuit was filed on November 24, 2025, one day before the collection statute would have expired. In recent years, the IRS has respected the 10-year statute of limitations. The IRS seldom resorts to civil lawsuits in order to extend the collection time limit. The IRS must consider resolving a debt internally, in addition to the economic value of the lawsuit. If the IRS feels a lawsuit is appropriate, they refer the case to the Tax Division of the Department of Justice, which also considers the feasibility of the lawsuit before doing so. So was this lawsuit politically motivated? The senator did not provide details or evidence to support this claim. But Sen. Justice’s public image may have played a part in the IRS decision. According to the IRS Internal Revenue Manual, once a decision is made to litigate, collection personnel should take every effort to ensure its success. Because they believe a timely and successful court action can have a positive impact on voluntary compliance. While the case has been settled hours after it began, it is unclear when the tax will be paid. Steven Chung is a tax attorney in Los Angeles, California. He helps people with basic tax planning and resolve tax disputes. He is also sympathetic to people with large student loans. He can be reached via email at stevenchungatl@gmail.com. Or you can connect with him on Twitter (@stevenchung) and connect with him on LinkedIn. The post Senator And Wife Sued For Over $5M In Unpaid Taxes And Agree To Pay Hours Later appeared first on Above the Law.

Nov 26, 202513 votes

How Appealing Weekly Roundup

Ed. Note: A weekly roundup of just a few items from Howard Bashman’s How Appealing blog, the Web’s first blog devoted to appellate litigation. Check out these stories and more at How Appealing. “Senate advances Third Circuit nominee Mascott amid Democratic objections; Delaware Senator Chris Coons has long complained that Jennifer Mascott lacks a sufficient connection to his home state, where the Trump administration official would likely consider some cases as an appellate judge”: Benjamin S. Weiss of Courthouse News Service has this report. “The Story of This Supreme Court Term Is Already On YouTube; Using soft-lit infomercial-style videos, conservative activists are building a shared cultural understanding about who deserves the law’s protections, and who does not”: Jay Willis has this essay online at Balls and Strikes. “Judge Dismisses Lawsuit Over Naked Baby on Nirvana’s ‘Nevermind’; The man pictured as a naked baby on the cover of Nirvana’s seminal second album argued that the band had engaged in child sex abuse imagery”: Derrick Bryson Taylor of The New York Times has this report. “Supreme Court’s Cook Decision Gives Fed Breathing Room, For Now”: Enda Curran, Catarina Saraiva, and Amara Omeokwe of Bloomberg News have this report. “Judges’ Mental Well-Being Gets New Attention as Threats Rise”: Suzanne Monyak of Bloomberg Law has this report. “Frozen feud: How Trump and the Supreme Court helped put historic Whole Foods union bid on ice.” John Kruzel and Daniel Wiessner of Reuters have this report. The post How Appealing Weekly Roundup appeared first on Above the Law.

Oct 3, 20259 votes

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