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Paul L. Caron
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Wednesday, April 13, 2016

The IRS Scandal, Day 1070

IRS Logo 2American Center for Law and Justice, Free Speech Appellate Court’s Blistering Takedown of IRS, DOJ over Targeting Conservatives is Awe-Inspiring:

It’s one of the most stunning judicial opinions I’ve ever read.  It is as clear in its scathing retort of the Obama Administration’s IRS and DOJ as it is precise in its legal acumen.

In what can only be described as a judicial takedown, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously delivers a scorching rejoinder to the IRS and DOJ’s brazen refusal to comply with a federal judge (even calling into question whether the Department of Justice is even seeking to provide “justice”) in one of the ongoing federal lawsuits over the IRS targeting scandal.

What you are about to read (and if you have the time, the entire opinion is well worth reading) is the opening salvo – a line drawn in the sand – by the federal judiciary against the out-of-control, politically corrupt IRS and DOJ:

Among the most serious allegations a federal court can address are that an Executive agency has targeted citizens for mistreatment based on their political views. No citizen—Republican or Democrat, socialist or libertarian—should be targeted or even have to fear being targeted on those grounds. Yet those are the grounds on which the plaintiffs allege they were mistreated by the IRS here. The allegations are substantial: most are drawn from findings made by the Treasury Department’s own Inspector General for Tax Administration. Those findings include that the IRS used political criteria to round up applications for tax-exempt status filed by so-called tea-party groups; that the IRS often took four times as long to process tea-party applications as other applications; and that the IRS served tea-party applicants with crushing demands for what the Inspector General called “unnecessary information.”

Yet in this lawsuit the IRS has only compounded the conduct that gave rise to it. The plaintiffs seek damages on behalf of themselves and other groups whose applications the IRS treated in the manner described by the Inspector General. The lawsuit has progressed as slowly as the underlying applications themselves: at every turn the IRS has resisted the plaintiffs’ requests for information regarding the IRS’s treatment of the plaintiff class, eventually to the open frustration of the district court. At issue here are IRS “Be On the Lookout” lists of organizations allegedly targeted for unfavorable treatment because of their political beliefs. Those organizations in turn make up the plaintiff class. The district court ordered production of those lists, and did so again over an IRS motion to reconsider. Yet, almost a year later, the IRS still has not complied with the court’s orders. Instead the IRS now seeks from this court a writ of mandamus, an extraordinary remedy reserved to correct only the clearest abuses of power by a district court. We deny the petition.

The entire opinion is a blistering exposition of the IRS’s intractable refusal to comply with not only the law but the federal courts as well.

The Sixth Circuit highlights this mind-blowing statement from the federal district judge in this case (and yes what you are about to read is extraordinarily rare from a federal judge):

My impression is the government probably did something wrong in this case. Whether there’s liability or not is a legal question. However, I feel like the government is doing everything it possibly can to make this as complicated as it possibly can, to last as long as it possibly can, so that by the time there is a result, nobody is going to care except the plaintiffs. . . . I question whether or not the Department of Justice is doing justice.

That statement, from a federal judge no less, cuts directly to the core of the IRS targeting scandal itself.  The Obama Administration’s IRS attempted to shutdown and silence conservative groups.  When it was caught, it attempted to stonewall and drag its heels with Congress.  Now it is trying to evade the reach of the federal courts.  It’s astonishing

But what the IRS did next was even more brazenly astounding.  It filed a writ of mandamus, which is reserved for “‘exceptional circumstances’ involving a ‘judicial usurpation of power’ or a ‘clear abuse of discretion.’”

That’s right, the IRS accused a federal district judge of usurping its power, merely by requiring the IRS to provide simple information about the names of the IRS officials involved in the IRS targeting and a list of the groups targeted – a simple, legally required step in a class action lawsuit.

https://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2016/04/the-irs-scandal-day-1069.html

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Comments

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Posted by: wodun | Apr 13, 2016 11:55:58 PM

In this situation and in the State Department's foot dragging in the Clinton e-mail dispute we see a continual and deliberate strategy of delay and disobedience to a federal court's requirements. The IRS apparently even lied and otherwise misrepresented the extent to which it checked to determine the existence of Lerner's e-mails--first saying they had been destroyed and much later admitting they still existed--bringing to mind Hillary Clinton and the magically reappearing Rose Law Firm billing records. The federal courts do have extensive contempt and sanctioning power and it is about time they used it against the bureaucrats who are lying and obstructing petitioners' rights to justice and flaunting the Court's authority. Time for these judges to grow some ---.

Posted by: David | Apr 13, 2016 9:33:12 AM

Has anybody asked President Obama whether he wants to own the DoJ's conduct in this case or does he want to say that their behavior is also a matter of rogues who are not complying with administration policy as the administration did earlier in the scandal?

Posted by: TMLutas | Apr 13, 2016 9:19:48 AM