When I read about this at the Wall Street Journal:
The case against the IRS for targeting conservatives isn’t over after all. On Tuesday a federal judge in Ohio certified a class-action lawsuit against the IRS by conservative groups whose applications for tax-exempt status were slow-rolled between 2010 and 2013.
The lawsuit by the NorCal Tea Party Patriots was filed in May 2013, shortly after the targeting came to light. It will represent more than 200 groups. In July 2014 Judge Susan Dlott dismissed parts of the lawsuit but allowed key portions to go forward. Those include claims that the IRS engaged in retaliation and viewpoint discrimination in violation of the First Amendment, and that the tax agency violated Section 6103 of the U.S. Code, which protects confidential taxpayer return information.
my immediate reaction was what remedy can they possibly be seeking? I concur with the judge’s assessment:
At a Sept. 24, 2015 hearing on an IRS request to conduct discovery on Citizens for Self-Governance, a nonprofit funding the lawsuit against the agency, Judge Dlott eviscerated Justice. “My impression is the government probably did something wrong in this case,†she said, “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.â€
I think “the government did something wrong”. I think that the Justice Department decided not to pursue it stinks. By and large the guilty parties have left the scene of the crime. To quote somebody or other at this point what difference does it make?
If you’re wondering about the title of this post, I can only speculate that the plaintiffs are hoping that a real smoking gun will emerge in discovery.
Judge Susan Dlott, appointed by Bill Clinton. Sounds like there is probably evidence of wrongdoing, but not enough to escape sovereign immunity for damages. What they may get is an order finding a violation of the Constitution, an injunction to stop, and reimbursement of lawyer fees.
Giving the Justice Department the benefit of the doubt, there may be enough evidence so that the preponderance of evidence supports such a finding but it’s not beyond a reasonable doubt that a criminal statute was broken. I could barely type that I found it so far-fetched but I guess it’s an explanation.
What damages other than lawyer’s fees can they claim? These were, so they claim, non-political entities just seeking to educate the public. I didn’t think there was ever any doubt there was wrongdoing. They clearly should not have delayed those groups. However, since they passed through the big conservative groups quickly, it really has never appeared that it was a politically motivated decision per se to delay these specific groups. My guess is that they are still hoping to find a secret conspiracy. That and keep it in the public eye and keep their team angry up until the election. Then it drops.
Steve
@steve, I think they are claiming damage based upon allegations that the IRS disclosed confidential information, prevented or chilled fund-raising by delaying not-for-profit approval, and imposed additional costs to get approval.