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Murphy And The Evolution Of "Basis", Deborah A. Geier

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

Marrita Murphy received compensatory damages of $45,000 for emotional distress or mental anguish and $25,000 for injury to professional reputation after bringing a complaint with the Department of Labor under various whistle-blower statutes. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit unanimously held, in an opinion written by Chief Judge Douglas Ginsburg, that Murphy's damages were not due to physical injury and thus could not be excluded under the authority of section 104(a)(2) of the Internal Revenue Code but that the government nevertheless could not, under the Constitution, tax those damages as income. The government …