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IRS and Political Speech: The Tax Collection Agency Should Not Police Speech

January 1, 2018  •  By IFS Staff  •    •  

Groups seeking tax-exempt status as a nonprofit organization must apply to the IRS to obtain this classification. Advocacy nonprofits, designated by a 501(c)(4) status, are one such classification of tax-exempt organizations that are permitted to engage in some political activities, so long as the majority of their activities are not political. As the Tea Party movement gained its footing in…

Free Speech and the IRS

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May 10, 2013   •  By Sarah Lee   •  

Just in case there was any doubt about the relationship between the tax status of an organization and its ability to speak freely, John ...

Senate Hearing Underscores Reasons for Caution in Campaign Finance Enforcement

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April 10, 2013   •  By Eric Wang   •  

Yesterday morning, the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism held a hearing on “Current Issues in Campaign Finance Law Enforcement.” With representatives from ...

Bradley A. Smith Testimony for the Senate Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism United States Senate April 9, 2013

April 9, 2013   •  By Joe Trotter   •  ,

For many reasons, enforcing campaign finance law is a highly complex issue. Most importantly, campaign finance law must be carefully crafted in order to ...

Free Exercise Where the Activity is Free

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October 25, 2006   •  By Steve Hoersting   •  ,

If drinking hoasca is okay, what is the result under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act when churches' sincere religious beliefs involve unpaid politics, and ...

Input/Output

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September 18, 2006   •  By IFS staff   •  ,

Last week I blogged about the IRS prohibition on pulpit endorsements and why it is unjustified.  A couple days later, in a very thoughtful post inspired ...

Politics and the Pulpit

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September 13, 2006   •  By IFS staff   •  , ,

All too frequently, regulation is a scale that balances the arbitrary against the vague.  Decreasing one tips the scale towards the other.  According to ...

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