Rep. Jim Jordan, a top Republican on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, criticized Thursday’s federal court decision to toss out a lawsuit by Tea Party group True the Vote against the Internal Revenue Service over unfair scrutiny.
“This is a sad ruling for liberty, and it makes no sense,” the Ohio Republican said. “True the Vote, and its founder Catherine Engelbrecht, were systematically harassed by the federal government. Ms. Engelbrecht and her organization were singled out for scrutiny and harassment by the IRS based on her beliefs and her political speech.”
U.S. District Court Judge Reggie B. Walton threw out the suit partly because the IRS has awarded True the Vote with the tax-exempt status it began seeking years ago.
“The allegedly unconstitutional government conduct, which delayed the processing of the plaintiff’s tax-exempt application and brought about this litigation, is no longer impacting the plaintiff,” Walton wrote in the court opinion.
But critics of the ruling said Walton overlooked the damage done by the IRS scrutiny and the cost to Engelbrecht, who for years endured audits and inquiries by federal agencies, including the FBI, that some believe were triggered by her application for tax-exempt status for True the Vote, a voter fraud watchdog group.
“If that isn’t unwarranted harassment, I don’t know what is,” Jordan said. “If such grievances don’t warrant redress by our federal courts, I don’t know what does.”
The House Oversight panel has summoned IRS officials to several hearings over allegations its agents unfairly targeted Tea Party and conservative groups for additional scrutiny when they applied for tax-exempt status.
The IRS has denied purposeful targeting conservative applicants.
