Outrageous. That’s the best word for the recent court decision letting the Internal Revenue Service off the hook for ideologically targeting organizations that apply for tax-exempt status.
True the Vote, which combats voter fraud, sued the Internal Revenue Service because of the tax agency’s deliberate obstruction of applications from Tea Party and conservative organizations like True the Vote. The long delay in approval was costly in part because many prospective contributors to TTV had been awaiting the granting of 501(c)(3) status before going ahead with their donations. True the Vote’s president, Catherine Engelbrecht, was also harassed by other government agencies after submitting the application to IRS.
Nevertheless, Judge Reggie Walton has cavalierly dismissed the suit, asserting that the eventual granting of the tax-exempt status means that the IRS had taken adequate “remedial steps to address the alleged behavior.”
Following the same exalted principle of jurisprudence, Walton would presumably dismiss charges against a mugger so long as at some point the arrested criminal had tossed the wallet back to his victim.
The dismissal, no matter how outrageous, is not in the tiniest bit surprising.
IRS personnel often behave as if they may assault our rights (e.g., to our bank accounts) with impunity, so long as they occasionally defer to our protests by announcing temporary or cosmetic reforms. Others in government cooperate in letting the agency run riot. Perhaps because they agree that the IRS (maybe themselves, too) should enjoy virtually unlimited power over us.
Or perhaps simply because they, like the rest of us, are scared of the IRS.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
11 replies on “IRS Re-Unleashed”
The IRS needs to keep up the great work of denying political organizations tax exempt status. The only reason these sham organizations want 501©)3) status is to keep their donor list secret.
They are all political organizations and should be jailed for perjury.
Still trying to figure out the post by JATR4????? I surely hope it is sarcasm.
Great job from the injustice department!
Wow, just wow. What, pray tell, are labor unions but political organizations.….no, I’ll rephrase that.…Democrat THUG organizations by and large. JATR4, IF there actually was such a thing as EQUAL JUSTICE, your statement would apply to them, too!
The ones that need to be jailed are the IRS and Union thugs who actively suppress political and religious speech. In case you didn’t know, JATR4, their actions violate the 1st Amendment of the United States Constitution. But, the thugs only care about the Constitution when they can use it for a shield.
If I run a red light but am no longer running a red light, then the judge should follow this precedent and dismiss any and all charges against me.
This idiocy is what happens when graduates of government schools get to be judges. Admission of attendance of a public school should be grounds for removal from the bench.
The adages once said “That justice delayed is justice denied” and also, “No harm, no foul”. In this case there was harm, and therefore was foul.
The new and replacement adage should be “An imperial state protects its own, first and foremost”.
Word is that this pile of BS is being appealed.
Hopefully, (but don’t hold your breath) things will change when that happens.
This is just more Big Brother control over us, the peons.
No one is violating anyone’s 1st amendment rights. These sham organizations want 501(c)(3) status ONLY to avoid listing their donors. There are other tax-exempt categories these organizations could register under like the following:
“The most common type of tax-exempt nonprofit organization falls under category 501(c)(3), whereby a nonprofit organization is exempt from federal income tax if its activities have the following purposes: charitable, religious, educational, scientific, literary, testing for public safety, fostering amateur sports competition, or preventing cruelty to children or animals. The 501(c)(4) and 501(c)(6) categories are for politically active nonprofit organizations, which have become increasingly important since the 2004 federal elections.”
[…] Common Sense with Paul Jacob » Archive » IRS Re-Unleashed. […]
What does the democrat party do with donor lists? Ah, yes, they SUPPRESS THE VOTES of people who donate to causes other than theirs. That gentleman who started Mozilla? Lost his job over California’ Prop 8. One high profile instance among many. There’s a reason donor lists should be private. Tell me, JATR4, how many people on the right insist on donor lists being exposed of left wing causes? This will give you a clue as to WHO is evil and WHO is not. There is NO ethical reason your name should become public if you want to donate to something you believe in.
WOW, those comments by everyone but JATR4 are spot on. JATR4 still has freedom of speech & we need to respect, but he seems to espouse the same government babble as the Obama administration, Nancy Pelosi etc.
As to the powers of the IRS — government will get as big as the voters allow them to. You all have a chance next Tuesday to make some changes. Vote the incumbents & the entrenched Congress out. Also vote down proposition that involves growing government.
[…] scrutiny and mistreatment.” (Plus, see the congressman’s recent press release lamenting a dismissal of charges against the […]