[EL] ELB News and Commentary 12/20/11

[Volokh, Eugene]

                If that is so - i.e., if a 501(c)(3) has no way to express its views about candidates, even using tax-exempt funds, whether through an affiliate 501(c)(4) or 527, then I think that is unconstitutional (see League of Women Voters).

From: BZall at aol.com [mailto:BZall at aol.com]
Sent: Thursday, December 22, 2011 12:17 PM
To: Volokh, Eugene; law-election at UCI.EDU
Subject: Re: [EL] ELB News and Commentary 12/20/11

501(c)(3)s cannot have PACs, and generally cannot have relationships with 527s (there is a tiny subset of limited activities that falls outside this ban). Absolute ban; no de minimis exceptions. See, e.g. Rev Rul 2006-17. http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=154712,00.html

The usual method to evade this restriction is for the individuals involved to set up a non-connected PAC. But that is tricky, and generally does not include the control group for the c3 or even substantial influence persons.

As to Paul Lehto's questions about govt speech and subordinates, that's kind of been settled since Rosenberger v. Rector [etc.] of Univ. Virginia and Rust v. Sullivan. Without looking up the cites, it's something like: "Government has the right to control speech when it is the speaker" and "Government has the right to control speech it is paying for." And the substantive logic is that parent and subordinate are not, in fact, separate entities with separate speech rights.


Barnaby Zall
Of Counsel
Weinberg, Jacobs & Tolani, LLP
11300 Rockville Pike, Suite 1200
Rockville, MD 20852
301-231-6943 (direct dial)
www.wjlaw.com<http://www.wj/>
bzall at aol.com



_____________________________________________________________
U.S. Treasury Circular 230 Notice

Any U.S. federal tax advice included in this communication (including
any attachments) was not intended or written to be used, and cannot be
used, for the purpose of (i) avoiding U.S. federal tax-related penalties
or (ii) promoting, marketing or recommending to another party any
tax-related matter addressed herein.
_____________________________________________________________
Confidentiality

The information contained in this communication may be confidential, is
intended only for the use of the recipient named above, and may be legally
privileged. It is not intended as legal advice, and may not be relied upon
or used as legal advice. Nor does this communication establish an attorney
client relationship between us. If the reader of this message is not the
intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination,
distribution, or copying of this communication, or any of its contents, is
strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error,
please re-send this communication to the sender and delete the original
message and any copy of it from your computer system. Thank you.
______________________________________________________________


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://webshare.law.ucla.edu/Listservs/law-election/attachments/20111222/f9079cac/attachment.html>