IRS 501(c)(4) Application Controversy Update
Over the summer those who believe the controversy is overblown – or even that the IRS did not do anything wrong in the first place – could point to a report from the Center for Public Integrity that the IRS had denied the exemption application of the left-leaning Arkansans for Common Sense as evidence that the IRS was, or least now is, even-handed in its treatment of such applications.
Critics of the IRS could point to a report from Judicial Watch that Justice Department attorneys have admited the emails of Lois Lerner and other IRS officials are not truly lost, but that it is simply too onerous to retrieve them from an apparently cumbersome backup system. (Additional coverage: The HillThe Washington Free Beacon). They also could point to the decision by federal District Court Chief Judge Susan J. Dlott to let some of the claims made by NorCal Tea Party Patriots against the IRS proceed, although a careful reading of Judge Dlott’s opinion reveals that some of the asserted claims did not in fact survive motions to dismiss. More specifcally, the claim of vionlations of the First and Fifth Amendments and of section 6103 (relating to confidentiality of tax return information) survived the motions to dismiss as against Treasury, the IRS, and IRS employees in their official capacities, but the constitutional claims did not survive as against IRS employees in their individual capacities (the 6103 claim was not asserted against the employees in their individual capacities). Interestingly, in allowing the constitutional claims to proceed the court relied significantly on an earlier opinion in the pending Z Street case.
Lloyd Mayer