Supreme Court of the United States / October Term 1987

Church of Scientology of California v. Internal Revenue Service

Decided November 10, 1987. William Hubbs Rehnquist delivered the opinion of the Court.

Docket 86-472 · 484 U.S. 9 (1987) · Cited 202 times

Holding

The Haskell Amendment does not exempt from 6103(b)(2)'s definition of confidential "return information" material in IRS files which can be redacted to delete those parts which would identify a particular taxpayer.

The Court’s statement of the holding, from the opinion’s syllabus. The syllabus is prepared by the Reporter of Decisions and is not part of the opinion of the Court — read the official opinion for authority.

How the Justices voted

Decided 6–0.

“Concurring” means agreeing with the outcome; any split shown is the Court’s judgment, not each Justice’s reasoning. Source: the Supreme Court Database (Spaeth et al.), Washington University.

Cited by

Later Supreme Court opinions in our collection that cite this case.

Official text

Read the official opinion (U.S. Reports, govinfo.gov)

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William Hubbs Rehnquist’s profile · All Supreme Court opinions · The Supreme Court

Source: Supreme Court of the United States, slip opinions (1987). Citation count from the Free Law Project’s CourtListener bulk data. Data last verified 2026-07-03. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).