From Brian S. Brown, President
For
Prof. Anne Hendershott, the phone call to her home from the IRS came out of the
blue in May 2010:
"The
IRS calls my house and says ... 'I just wanted to let you know that we're going
to be auditing your business' and I said 'My businesses?' and he said, 'You
know the expenses you take off for writing."
Prof.
Hendershott is a sociologist and a fierce Catholic critic of what she calls
"fake" Catholic, Soros-funded groups supporting pro-abortion Pres.
Obama and Obamacare's mandates on Catholic groups. Prof. Hendershott made very
little money publishing a few pieces a year for places ranging from the Wall
Street Journal to the Catholic Advocate.
But
the IRS demanded she come to New Haven, Connecticut without her husband, met
with her, and grilled her about every check she had deposited, demanding to
know irrelevant questions like what kind of groups the money came from, etc.
The
chilling effect of any abuse of the IRS' power, terrifying to millions of
ordinary American taxpayers, is very real. The tactic worked:
"I
haven't written for them since the audit, because I was so scared," she
said.
This
is what tyranny feels like.
NOM’s Smoking Gun in IRS-Gate
The
National Organization for Marriage has been a prime target of IRS abuse; I
began with Prof. Hendershott's story to tell you the enormous consequences to
liberty and democracy that will happen if we do not stand up and fight back.
This
week we learned we are not alone: what happened to marriage supporters is one
part of a larger pattern of abuse of government power to undermine democracy in
America. The latest news: the IRS systematically abuses its power to help one
party win an election.
But
what the IRS tried to do to you and to every marriage supporter in America
through this attack on NOM is a key, and horrific, escalation in the abuse of
government power, corrupting democracy and undermining the basic human right to
participate in the public square:
In
USA Today NOM's Chairman Prof. John Eastman asks the key question: "How
did tax returns of a group opposed to gay marriage get leaked to political
opponents?
Our
case was particularly egregious because the IRS leak of confidential information
fed directly into an ongoing political battle. For months before March 2012,
the pro-gay marriage HRC had been demanding that my group, NOM, publicly
identify its major donors, something that NOM and many other non-profits refuse
to do. The reason is simple. In the past, gay marriage advocates have used such
information to launch campaigns of intimidation against traditional marriage
supporters.
Just
as gay marriage proponents were demanding the information, the IRS appears to
have illegally given them exactly what they were looking for.
For
the IRS to leak any organization's tax return to its political opponents is an
outrageous breach of ethics and, if proven, constitutes a felony.. .. But the
situation here is even more egregious because the head of the HRC was at the
time serving as a national co-chair of President Obama's re-election campaign.
The
release of NOM's legally protected tax forms was a conscious act to reward a
prominent Obama supporter while punishing an opponent.
When
we went to the IRS to complain, we were promised a full investigation. And yet
last year the IRS told us the case was "concluded" with no further
information given. But then, in response to our latest of three Freedom of
Information Act requests, the IRS replied that it could not disclose any
information relating to a criminal investigation. "It's just
Orwellian," as Prof. Eastman told The Washington Times.
The
story that the IRS leaked confidential info to NOM's political opponents and
that Pres. Obama's co-chair then made use of the information, made the top of
the Drudge Report, Politico, The Hill, FoxNews, Breitbart.com, and many, many
other top news outlets.
Rush
Limbaugh also took notice:
I
don't quite know how to characterize it. This is Soviet-style banana republic
stuff; it's a combo of Soviet-style statism, thuggism, and banana republic. The
law doesn't matter — all that matters is advancing the cause and defeating the
enemies of the cause, no matter what you have to do. . . . Law says you can't
share information, we'll find a way to do it.
Listen to the full Rush segment here.
IRS
agents acted like the law doesn't matter. Decency doesn't matter. Diversity
doesn't matter. The rights of your fellow citizens, friends, neighbors and family
to participate in democracy—even if they disagree with you—doesn't matter. All
that matters is getting to your enemies and shutting them down any way.
A
piece published this week in the prestigious The Atlantic, coauthored by David
Montez of GLAAD (a major gay advocacy organization), openly laid out their
goals for America, their vision of America: a place where your views never get
heard: "But even today, anti-LGBT activists, who continue to wrongfully
state that gay people are unfit to be parents, have a platform in the media to
spread their lies. We have a long way to go before groups like the National
Organization for Marriage are no longer routinely invited to provide 'balance'
on national cable news programs."
(Note
how they transform the idea that children ideally need a mom and dad, to the
idea that gay people are "unfit" — not what we say of course — but
the truth is not relevant to a determined, aggressive campaign designed to
silence your opponents and treat them as bigots.)
I
want to thank those Democrats in particular, some of whom may even support gay
marriage, for standing up for basic decency against the abuse of government
power. Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, ranking Democrat of the House
Oversight Committee, is one such politician who, in talking to the press about
the unfolding IRS scandals, called the news "one of the most alarming
things that I have ever seen."
"I
think laws were probably broken, but at the least there have been some improper
actions on the part of the IRS," he said.
At
the very least!
How We Fight Back Against Tyranny
Pres.
Obama has promised he will get to the bottom of these IRS abuses, but the proof
lies in the pudding and at this point we aren't going to sit back and trust, we
are going to demand action to protect your right to participate in democracy on
an equal basis.
Again,
we are not going to take this lying down. WE are not going to lose our
democracy—and your rights—without a fight!
First,
this week NOM called for Congressional hearings (and launched a brand new
online petition where you can join this call.) The IRS not only harassed
conservative groups, it went so far as to release confidential and sensitive
information to their liberal opponents in a presidential election year.
As
I told The Washington Times "Only the unique powers of Congress to
subpoena, question and investigate will help us expose the truth about how the
pro-gay Human Rights Campaign (HRC) came into possession of a nonpublic tax
document that NOM had to file with the IRS."
Second,
this week, I announced NOM is filing a lawsuit against the IRS over the illegal
theft of NOM's confidential tax return from 2008 and its subsequent leak to the
Human Rights Campaign, one of our principal political opponents:
Not
only has the IRS retaliated against conservative, small-government and tea party
groups as they apply for recognition of tax exemption AND lied about it, but it
has criminally released our confidential tax return including the identity of
dozens of major donors to a political enemy.
In addition to being our principal combatant in
the war on traditional marriage, the HRC's president at the time was serving as
a Co-Chair of President Obama's reelection campaign. This is a chilling set of
circumstances that should ring alarm bells across the nation.
NOM
has retained ActRight Legal Foundation to file the lawsuit in federal district
court in the District of Columbia. We encourage any other individuals or
nonprofits who experienced similar IRS abuses to contact ActRight Legal
Foundation.
"The
very core of our ordered society has been shaken by this political roughing-up
of nonprofits by the IRS" says NOM's Chairman, Dr. John C. Eastman.
"As a constitutional law scholar I can tell you that no nonprofit should
ever have to experience this kind of retaliation."
Today
the news broke that the IRS demanded in writing, that a prolife group promise
not to picket Planned Parenthood, in order to receive tax-exempt status.
This
is serious my friends, our democracy is at risk. Unless we stand
shoulder-to-shoulder and fight back, the campaign to silence traditional points
of view will move on to the next phase—silencing the people who hold these
views and pushing them out of the public eye completely, into the shadows.
If
you know of a tax exempt organization that has been attacked or harassed by the
IRS, please ask them to contact us or ActRight Legal Foundation. Please pray
for all those on the front lines fighting for marriage, for democracy, and for
what is right.
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