William Edward Powell v. Janet L. Yellen, Secretary of the Treasury, et al.

Section 6103 of the Internal Revenue Code, 26 U.S.C. § 6103, establishes a liberal and detailed regime for taxpayers to obtain from the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) their own tax returns and return information (including the returns and return information of estates they administer and corporations to which they are closely tied). At the same time, the provision severely limits anyone from obtaining another’s returns and return information. Previously, this Court upheld enforcement of § 6103’s limits on disclosure of others’ return information in a claim brought under the Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”), 5 U.S.C. § 552. See Church of Scientology v. IRS, 484 U.S. 9, 18 (1987). But the Court has not addressed the proper judicial review scheme for taxpayers seeking to compel disclosure of their own returns and return information. The Sixth and Seventh Circuits have held that § 6103 is a specific statute displacing FOIA, making a suit to enforce § 6103 under the Administrative Procedure Act (“APA”), 5 U.S.C. § 706, the remedy to challenge an IRS disclosure refusal. The Third, Fifth, Tenth, Eleventh, and D.C. Circuits have held that FOIA – with its more limited requirement for searches for records, its exemptions to disclosure, and its unique enforcement scheme – exclusively controls. The First Circuit has sanctioned a hybrid approach. The Question Presented is: Is § 6103 a specific statute displacing FOIA, so that the remedy for taxpayers to compel disclosure of their returns and return information is a suit under the APA to enforce § 6103?