Nonprofit Jonesing This Week

On Monday, I told you that like Lionel Richie when he left the Commodores, I am going solo with a new nonprofit blog called Jonesing on Nonprofits.  “Jonesing,” by the way, is word from the 70’s drug scene.  It was used by hippies in Haight-Ashbury to describe their intense urge for  psychedelic drugs that would transport them to “Cloud 9.”  That’s how I feel about nonprofits.  I’m always jonesing for nonprofits.  Later, Cheech & Chong made a song called “Basketball Jones,” a song that sadly described the singer’s complete addiction to basketball.  The singer had a “Basketball Jones.” The song was a riff on a 70s silky soul song called “Love Jones,” describing a high schooler’s inability to think about anything other than his high school crush. I thought about calling my new blog “A Nonprofit Jones” because its all I ever think about anymore.  

All the posts on Jonesing this week were in front of the pay wall.  It was the introductory week so everything was free.  Readers of this blog will recognize the writing.  I am not always right, sometimes I am terribly wrong as I admit in the post this week regarding Catholic Charities Bureau v. Wisconsin.  Oral argument in that case is March 31 and Wisconsin hasn’t a snowball’s chance in hell. 

Why should people pay for the blog?  Because a brother gotta eat.  And because the posts are written by a lifelong student of nonprofits and always contain links to primary sources (statutes, regs, opinions, petitions, briefs, etc.) so scholars, researchers, practitioners and stakeholders can read the law for themselves. Or at least have a leg up on their own research. I usually won’t post a story unless I have hunted down the primary source documents.  And, as usual, I will admit to all my liberal and sometimes conservative biases as appropriate.  As long as they let me, I will post a list of Jonesings  to this blog once a week. But starting next week readers will need to subscribe to read.  A brother gotta eat. Besides, subscription prices are cheaper than anywhere else. 

Here are [free] links to Jonesing for this week:

1. Administration Sues Illinois for Encouraging DEI in Nonprofits. Continuing effort to erase black people.

2.  Solicitor General Wants to Present Oral Argument in Catholic Charities Bureau v. Wisconsin. Wisconsin doesn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell.

3. Supreme Court Affirms District Court Order to Release USAID Funds: Alito Presages Constitutional Crisis

4. Court Denies Musk Preliminary Injunction Against OpenAI (c)(3). Orders “expedited trial” on “toss up” contract claim.

5. Tax Exempt Orgs & Corporate Jets. TIGTA Report Advises Solutions Without Problems

6. Taking “Unrelated” Out of the Unrelated Business Income Tax. Solely as a revenue raiser, not a fundamental norm.

7. Nonprofits Were Shy About Advocacy Even Before the Trump Cataclysm. They Hunker Down and Shut Up Even More Now.

8. Catholic Charities Bureau v. Wisconsin: Briefs are In.  CCB should win easily because religion is more than proselytizing.

I gotta nonprofit jones.

darryll k. jones