Lawsuit
Seeks Documents on Lois Lerner, Administration's Secret Planning to Impose
Restrictions on Citizens Speech; Plans Additional Demands for Information
Regarding IRS Attempts to Revise and Reissue Speech Restrictions
Tea Party
Patriots today filed a lawsuit in US District Court for the District of
Columbia against the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the Department of
Treasury, asking the court to force the release of documents shedding light on
the agency’s proposal for burdensome regulations for 501c4 citizens groups, and
the roles played by former IRS official Lois Lerner and other Administration
officials in developing the regulations.
“Americans
deserve to know the truth about how the IRS is trying to deprive us and other
citizens of our First Amendment rights to free speech. Citizens shouldn't
have to go to court to find out what sort of secret activities their government
is up to,” said Tea Party Patriots Co-Founder Jenny Beth Martin. “It’s truly
shameful; President Obama promised a transparent government but instead, people
have to file lawsuits just to learn the truth.” Tea Party Patriots was
among those groups targeted by the IRS for intimidation and delaying the
group's application for tax-exempt status and will be directly impacted by the
proposed regulations
"With Monday's announcement
that the IRS may issue revised regulations for groups such as Tea Party
Patriots, getting to the origin of the Administration's plans to muzzle us
becomes even more urgent," continued Mrs. Martin. "We plan to submit
a new FOIA request this week to learn what has transpired behind the scenes
since the proposed rules were first issued, and to add new claims to our
lawsuit if the IRS and Treasury continue to ignore our requests for
information."
The suit
seeks documents relating to the IRS’s “Guidance for Tax Exempt Social Welfare
Organizations on Candidate-Related Political Activities,” announced November
29, 2013. To date, the IRS has refused to provide any documents to Tea
Party Patriots, which first requested them on December 10, 2013 under the
Freedom of Information Act
“The
Proposed Regulations would impose significant burdens and restrictions on the
First Amendment activities, speech, and associational rights of every social
welfare organization in America,” the suit alleges, arguing that Tea Party
Patriots and the public have the right to see any documents related to the IRS
proposal. The propose rulemaking resulted in more than 150,000 public
comments, which IRS officials described as a record number of responses to a
proposed regulation.
The
lawsuit makes note of IRS communications released by the House Ways and Means
Committee and charges that, “high ranking individuals within the Treasury and
the IRS began as early as June 2012 to develop new regulations “off plan” and
in secret.” The suit specifically references email about the new
regulations from Treasury Official Ruth Madrigal to Lois Lerner, the embattled
former head of exempt organizations at the IRS who has been referred to the
Justice Department for criminal investigation and has been found in contempt of
Congress for her role in the IRS’s targeting of conservative groups seeking tax
exempt status.
IRS
Commissioner John Koskinen said Monday the IRS is likely rewriting
the proposed regulations to be reissued at some point.
"The
IRS is continuing to scheme behind closed doors to restrict our First Amendment
rights. Tea Party Patriots intends to continue to force the IRS and the Obama
Administration to comply with the law, to come out of the darkness and to
conduct this process in the light of day," concluded Mrs. Martin.
Tea Party
Patriots is a national grassroots coalition with more than 3,400 locally
organized chapters and more than 15 million supporters nationwide. Tea
Party Patriots is a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to
promoting the principles of fiscal responsibility, constitutionally limited
government, and free markets. Visit Tea Party Patriots online at www.TeaPartyPatriots.org.
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