TaxProf Blog

Paul L. Caron
Dean





Sunday, August 7, 2016

The IRS Scandal, Day 1186

IRS Logo 2Walter Olson, DC Circuit Reinstates Conservative Groups’ Lawsuits against IRS Targeting:

Remember the claims from Obama administration fans that the scandal of the Internal Revenue Service targeting Tea Party and conservative groups wasn’t really much of a scandal after all; that it was the result of inadvertence or incompetence and, in any event, has been fully addressed so that it won’t happen again?

A unanimous panel of the DC Circuit Court of Appeals isn’t buying it. Today the circuit’s three-judge panel unanimously reinstated lawsuits against the IRS over the targeting program. With scathing language, it ruled that a lower court had improperly credited the IRS’s promises that it had ended its abusive targeting and sought to rectify the harms being sued over. In fact, the court said, evidence indicates that the IRS has not only failed to provide adequate guarantees of future good behavior, but continues even now to hassle some of the groups it harassed.

American Center for Law & Justice, ACLJ Wins Significant Victory Against the Obama Administration’s IRS Targeting:

We just secured a major victory in federal appeals court against the Obama Administration’s IRS.  The court unequivocally agreed with our position that the IRS’s targeting of conservatives has not ended and that our clients – numerous conservative, Tea Party, and pro-life groups – deserve to have their day in court.

Just hours ago, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit issued a decision in our IRS targeting scandal case, affirming in part and reversing in part the district court’s decision of dismissal, and remanding the case for further proceedings on all constitutional claims.

In its opinion, the appellate court agreed that the district court’s decision dismissing our clients’ – thirty-eight non-profit organizations from twenty-two states subjected to numerous violations of their First Amendment rights – claims was made in error on the unfounded position that the IRS had since ceased all allegedly illegal activity.

The court was quick to criticize the IRS’s absurd arguments that it had voluntarily ceased all illegal activity, stating unequivocally in the opinion that “voluntary cessation [by the IRS of the alleged illegal activity] has never occurred.”

https://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2016/08/the-irs-scandal-day-1186.html

IRS News, IRS Scandal, Tax | Permalink

Comments

Mr. MM: Neither of the bars by which I am licensed permits claims of "expertise." I disavow expertise in any area of law. But I have responded to your questions, assuming the moderator posts the responses.

Posted by: Publius Novus | Aug 9, 2016 6:51:17 AM

Publius,

You portray yourself as an expert on federal law. Several specific questions regarding statutes the IRS possibly violated have been put to you here:

http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2016/08/the-irs-scandal-day-1181.html

Would you please answer these specific questions?

Posted by: MM | Aug 8, 2016 7:34:00 PM

And not to forget, the Court affirmed the dismissal of the Bivens claims against the individual IRS employees, as well as the illegal disclosure-of-tax-information claims against the United States.

So there will be no damages from individual IRS employees or officials. True the Vote failed to make out a claim for wrongful inspection or disclosure of tax information–even as the appellate court assumed the well-pleaded allegations of the complaint to be true–so no wrongful inspections or disclosures. And this by Republican judges. The conspiracy grows and grows!!!

Posted by: Publius Novus | Aug 8, 2016 7:28:39 AM

This was a decision by the D.C. Circuit, not the Second Circuit. A unanimous decision by two Reagan appointees and one Bush 41 appointee, that overturned a district court decision that granted a motion to dismiss. For those uninitiated to federal procedural niceties, on a motion to dismiss, the well-pleaded allegations of the complaint are assumed to be true. True the Vote will now have the opportunity to attempt to prove that the well-pleaded allegations of the complaint are in fact true. Stay tuned.

Posted by: Publius Novus | Aug 8, 2016 7:20:13 AM

Once again, the Obama administration deliberately used process as punishment and lied about it.

Posted by: wodun | Aug 7, 2016 3:27:00 PM

Here in flyover country there's not much faith left in the federal judicial system. Maybe this will help. Democrat appointees don't seem to be much more than political apparatchiks like Ginsburg warning again the election of Trump. I guess this is from the second circuit. Maybe there's hope. Still looks like Obama's corruption will skate past January, 2017...and whatever happens then will be called "old news" by the MSM. Democrats sure got it good.

Posted by: VoteOutIncumbents | Aug 7, 2016 10:44:21 AM