Louisiana
Joins Coalition Calling for Withdrawal of Big Brother-Mandate
BATON
ROUGE, LA – Fighting to protect the financial freedom of Louisiana citizens,
Attorney General Jeff Landry is pushing back against the Biden Administration’s
unconstitutional banking surveillance plan. Attorney General Landry has joined
19 of his fellow state attorneys general in calling for an immediate
end to a proposal that would allow the Internal
Revenue Service (IRS) access to every citizen’s bank account with a balance of at
least $600 and exceeds $600 per year in transactions.
“Joe
Biden’s federal government combing through almost every American’s bank account
without cause – or even suspicion – is unacceptable, illegal, and contrary to
the well-founded constitutional principles against illegal searches and
seizures,” said Attorney General Landry. “I will do all that I can to fight
this reckless authoritarianism and protect the people of Louisiana, their
property, and their privacy.”
In a
letter to Biden and his Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, Attorney General
Landry and his colleagues argue the policy is at best overly burdensome and at
worst illegal. “As the chief legal officers of our states, we find this
proposal wholly unacceptable and oppose any requirement of its kind.”
The
attorneys general argue the proposal seeks to leverage private transaction
information by effectively transforming banks into large-scale data processors
for the IRS, forcing the banks to provide private information regarding common transactions
such as rent payments, paying for groceries, and other transactions that are
part of everyday life of Americans who have done nothing wrong, are not under
suspicion of having done anything illegal and for which the government has no
evidence or reason to believe are guilty of civil or criminal violations.
“It has
become all too common for the Biden Administration to disregard the
Constitution in their attempt to break the middle class,” concluded Attorney
General Landry. “In addition to violating the law, the IRS proposal would not
only lay an enormous burden on local and community banks in Louisiana but also
punish their consumers with higher fees and rates or less access to banking
services.”
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Joining
Attorney General Landry in the letter were the attorneys general of Georgia, Idaho, Utah, Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi,
Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina,
Texas, and West Virginia.