A federal judge in Washington, D.C. has sided with the IRS and thrown out lawsuits connected to the IRS targeting conservative and Christian groups.
Judge Reggie Walton ruled that the cases against the IRS for their actions were “moot” because the IRS claims they are no longer targeting conservative groups and because the IRS granted the tax-exempt statuses for the groups involved in the suit.
“After the plaintiff initiated this case, its application to the IRS for tax-exempt status was approved by the IRS. The allegedly unconstitutional governmental conduct, which delayed the processing of the plaintiff’s tax exempt application and brought about this litigation, is no longer impacting the plaintiff,” Walton said in his decision to throw out True the Vote’s lawsuit against the IRS.
This means that the IRS could begin targeting Christian or conservative groups again at any time because there is no legal prohibition to those actions.
“[T]he Court is satisfied that there is no reasonable expectation that the alleged conduct will recur, as the defendants have not only suspended the conduct, but have also taken remedial measures to ensure that the conduct is not repeated,” the judge wrote.
Over a thousand pastors took to their pulpits on Sunday to say that Christ controls what they say to their congregations, not the government.
The Pulpit Initiative, part of the Alliance Defending Freedom, organized the 7th Annual Pulpit Freedom Sunday. The goal is to have pastors “speak truth into every area of life from the pulpit.”
“Pastors should decide what they preach from the pulpit, not the IRS,” said ADF Senior Legal Counsel Erik Stanley, who oversees the observance. “Churches should be allowed to decide for themselves what they want to talk about. The IRS should not be the one making the decision by threatening to revoke a church’s tax-exempt status. There’s a growing chorus of pastors’ voices calling for a solution to this very real constitutional violation.”
The event had pastors participating from all fifty states plus the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.
The move is to point out the “Johnson Amendment” of 1954 that says churches cannot “participate in or intervene in” political campaigns.
“The real effect of the Johnson Amendment is that pastors are muzzled for fear of investigation by the IRS,” said ADF Litigation Counsel Christiana Holcomb. “Rather than risk confrontation, many pastors have self-censored their speech—afraid to apply the teachings of Scripture to specific candidates or elections. As in years past, the participants in Pulpit Freedom Sunday 2014 are taking a stand against being intimidated into sacrificing their First Amendment freedoms.”
Christian organizations are demanding the Internal Revenue Service release the details of a deal they made with the anti-Christian Freedom From Religion Foundation to target churches and their tax-exempt status.
The agreement between the IRS and the anti-Christianists was part of a hearing in federal court on July 17th to settle a lawsuit brought in 2012.
The virulent anti-Christian Freedom From Religion Foundation said that churches were illegally influencing the outcome of elections by talking to congregants about political issues from the pulpit during services.
The Faith and Freedom Coalition says that the IRS has a history of harassment of conservative and Christian groups, making this secret deal with those aiming to destroy Christians dangerous for all Americans.
“Given the history of the IRS in harassing, persecuting and infringing on the First Amendment rights of Christians and other people of faith, this is a deeply disturbing development,” said Ralph Reed, chairman of Faith & Freedom Coalition. “For the Christian community to be targeted for increased enforcement power and the threat of loss of tax-exempt status by this scandal-plagued agency defies logic, common sense, and any sound legal basis.”
The group is not the only ones looking into the secret deal. Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt has sent letters to the IRS and Department of Justice demanding to see all communications between the government and the anti-Christianists.
The IRS has admitted they leaked information on donors of a conservative group to liberal activists during the 2012 presidential campaign season.
Donors to the National Organization for Marriage had their confidential tax information given to a group that actively opposed N.O.M. The list included Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney and his opponents used the information during the election cycle.
The confidential information was then given to websites like the Huffington Post.
After denying the IRS was the source of the information, the group has now virtually admitted they had leaked the information by paying $50,000 to N.O.M. over the leak.
The IRS still claims no guilt over the leak but says that the document leak was an “inadvertent mistake” because it “failed to redact confidential information.”
N.O.M. has asked the Department of Justice to offer immunity to the man given the confidential information so the IRS leaker can be brought up on charges. The Justice Department has so far refused to provide immunity or pursue prosecution of those who received the confidential information.
A major credit card company has changed their rules with cardholders that allow them access that not even the government can have without obtaining a warrant from a judge.
Capital One issued an update saying “we may contact you in any manner we choose” and specifies that in addition to calls, emails, texts or faxes the company can pay you a “personal visit.”
The visits are specified to be both at the cardholder’s home or their place of employment.
Government organizations such as the Internal Revenue Service are prohibited from visiting your home without an arrest warrant.
Lawyers specializing in illegal-search cases say the Constitution only applies to law enforcement so it’s unlikely that anyone will be able to stop Capital One on grounds it violates a citizen’s Fourth Amendment rights.
The company’s agreement also states they are allowed to use fake Caller ID information in attempts to reach consumers. That means they can create bogus charitable organizations such as Disabled Children Fund and use that to identify themselves on home and cell phones.
Capital One officials say that despite the ominous language in the agreement, they will not be visiting the homes of customers unless the items are large ticket items like snowmobiles or Jet Skis.
A spokesman for Capital One said they are reviewing the language.
In an attempt to find federal workers who were cheating the government, U.S. agencies ended up examining people who had no direct connection to the U.S. government and had only purchased books on an alert list.
Federal investigators reportedly gathered a list of 4,904 people from the records of two men who were being examined for teaching people how to pass lie detector tests. The officials then gave the list to 30 federal agencies including the IRS, CIA, NSA and Food & Drug Administration. The government hoped to find employees or applicants who tried to use techniques to beat lie detector tests required for security clearances.
McClatchy News Service reports that many of the people investigated by the government agencies after the release of the list had only bought books or DVDs from one of the men being investigated and received no one-on-one training from the suspects.
A source says that federal agencies are under increasing pressure from the White House to find “insider threats” in the wake of the Edward Snowden NSA scandal.
More information is coming out regarding the IRS scandal that had the agency targeting conservative groups and Christian organizations.
An Iowa pro-life group has reported the IRS told them that they could not protest or picket any Planned Parenthood organization if they wanted to be granted 501(c)3 non-profit status. Continue reading →