OK Mr. Anonymous. There is some discussion about the scope of dina de malchutei dina and the only place where there is no debate is on the issue of reasonable taxation and tax evasion. Jews are obligated to pay their taxes and to not facilitate tax evasion. I am pretty certain that Spitzer knew that the sex trade workers he frequented were not in fact paying taxes - he paid them in cash after all. Thus not only was he violating US law, but he was also violating Jewish law. Furthermore, another Jewish law that he might have violated was that of Chilul Hashem - derived from the Torah prohibition against desecrating God's name and interpreted to include the creation of public ridicule and slander, making the Jews look bad by association etc.

Neither of these Jewish values is a bar to civil disobedience in Judaism. In fact Judaism has a rich tradition of encouraging, even demanding the pursuit of justice. It started with Abraham who protested God's planned annihilation of Sodom for instance. There are some that say that the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed because the assembled sages at a feast did not step in and prevent Bar Kamtza's public humiliation by the host who threw him out after he was accidentally invited by the host's servant who was supposed to invite Kamtza and not Bar Kamtza. I could go on and on, but nothing in Jewish law prevents one from reasonably protesting against injustice. Harriet Tubman and MLK were they Jewish would not have run afoul of Jewish law. Neither did Haym Solomon who was a Jew who helped finance the US Revolutionary war.

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