The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), which represents 27 tea party groups that say their applications for non-profit status were treated unfairly by the Internal Revenue Service, sent a letter to the IRS on Monday, demanding that tax-exempt status be immediately granted to 10 of the groups it represents.
The letter comes in the wake of the IRS’ admission that applications for non-profit status by tea party and conservative 501(c)4 groups were wrongly targeted for further review.
Of the 27 groups represented by the Jay Sekulow-led ACLJ, 15 have been granted tax-exempt status, 10 groups’ statuses are pending, and two groups have withdrawn their applications out of “frustration.” In its letter to the IRS on Monday, the ACLJ demanded that the IRS “approve immediately, and without further delay, the pending requests for either 501(c)(3) or 501(c)(4) tax exempt status of the following organizations: Albuquerque Tea Party, Allen Area Patriots, Greater Phoenix Tea Party Patriots, Greenwich Tea Party Patriots, Laurens County Tea Palty, Linchpins of Liberty, Myrtle Beach Tea Patty, North East Tarrant Tea Party, Patriots Educating Concerned Americans Now (PECAN), and Unite in Action.”
The letter also demanded that the IRS identify and discipline “all IRS employees who either concocted, knowingly carried out, knowingly failed to stop, or knowingly misinformed Congress or the public about, the scheme to target Tea Party and similar groups in violation of IRS rules and regulations.” The ACLJ gave the IRS until May 17 to respond to its request, after which, the letter said, the group’s clients would be advised of their legal rights, “including their right to sue for the redress of their grievances.”
Read the letter:
