[EL] News Analysis: Substantial Minority of Scrutinized EOs Were Not Conservative
Michael P McDonald
mmcdon at gmu.edu
Thu Jun 6 16:06:37 PDT 2013
Since there is a wide range of claims about what the IRS did, it would be worthwhile to contribute to a discussion worthy of a former member of the FEC and a distinguished law professor, to know what Brad thinks the IRS has admitted to rather than try to divine it from one sentence snark.
I have been clear that I think the IRS was stupid to use a politically charged search term to flag applications, but that this does not mean that conservative groups were unfairly flagged by the IRS. This is what I believe the IRS has admitted to, and the linked story has a number of quotes to this effect. The evidence that has been brought to light supports the IRS. Bloomberg reported that while no conservative groups were denied their applications, liberal groups were given the same questionnaire and were even denied status. And now we have a clearer picture that a number of liberal groups were given heightened scrutiny along with conservative groups.
Still, this is insufficient evidence that the IRS was just stupid. We need to know the "audit" rate of liberal groups and conservative groups to know if conservative groups were unfairly flagged for attention. And since I cannot prove a negative, it is always possible that there was true politically motivated malfeasance. But no such evidence has come to light yet.
============
Dr. Michael P. McDonald
Associate Professor
George Mason University
4400 University Drive - 3F4
Fairfax, VA 22030-4444
phone: 703-993-4191 (office)
e-mail: mmcdon at gmu.edu
web: http://elections.gmu.edu
twitter: @ElectProject
-----Original Message-----
From: Smith, Brad [mailto:BSmith at law.capital.edu]
Sent: Thursday, June 06, 2013 6:32 PM
To: Trevor Potter
Cc: Michael P McDonald; law-election at UCI.edu
Subject: RE: [EL] News Analysis: Substantial Minority of Scrutinized EOs Were Not Conservative
Admission against interest. Thanks for playing.
Bradley A. Smith
Josiah H. Blackmore II/Shirley M. Nault
Professor of Law
Capital University Law School
303 E. Broad St.
Columbus, OH 43215
614.236.6317
http://law.capital.edu/faculty/bios/bsmith.aspx
________________________________________
From: Trevor Potter [tpotter at capdale.com]
Sent: Thursday, June 06, 2013 5:35 PM
To: Smith, Brad
Cc: Michael P McDonald; law-election at UCI.edu
Subject: Re: [EL] News Analysis: Substantial Minority of Scrutinized EOs Were Not Conservative
Brad
I thought you did not trust what the IRS says, and would therefore support an outside more in depth analysis, no matter where the chips fall?
Trevor Potter
Sent from my iPad
On Jun 6, 2013, at 4:39 PM, "Smith, Brad" <BSmith at law.capital.edu> wrote:
> Meanwhile, some people continue to deny that the IRS did what the IRS has already admitted.
>
> Bradley A. Smith
>
> Josiah H. Blackmore II/Shirley M. Nault
>
> Professor of Law
>
> Capital University Law School
>
> 303 E. Broad St.
>
> Columbus, OH 43215
>
> 614.236.6317
>
> http://law.capital.edu/faculty/bios/bsmith.aspx
>
> ________________________________________
> From: law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu
> [law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu] on behalf of Michael P
> McDonald [mmcdon at gmu.edu]
> Sent: Thursday, June 06, 2013 1:22 PM
> To: law-election at UCI.edu
> Subject: Re: [EL] News Analysis: Substantial Minority of Scrutinized
> EOs Were Not Conservative
>
> Correction, I read this too hastily, this analysis just shows that a good number of left groups were scrutinized. We know from previous posts that no right group was denied status, but left groups were.
>
> And to also be fair to the author, the report also notes that we need more data on all the applications.
>
> ============
> Dr. Michael P. McDonald
> Associate Professor
> George Mason University
> 4400 University Drive - 3F4
> Fairfax, VA 22030-4444
>
> phone: 703-993-4191 (office)
> e-mail: mmcdon at gmu.edu
> web: http://elections.gmu.edu
> twitter: @ElectProject
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu
> [mailto:law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu] On Behalf Of
> Michael P McDonald
> Sent: Thursday, June 06, 2013 1:11 PM
> To: law-election at UCI.edu
> Subject: [EL] News Analysis: Substantial Minority of Scrutinized EOs
> Were Not Conservative
>
> Martin Sullivan's analysis shows that more liberal groups were denied 501c4 tax exempt status by the IRS than conservative groups.
>
> http://www.taxanalysts.com/www/features.nsf/Articles/D2A6C735EAFA7A908
> 5257B7B004C0D90
>
> This is an important part of the puzzle that demonstrates conservative organizations were not unfairly targeted by the IRS. But, we still do not know from this analysis if the audit rate for conservative groups was higher than liberal groups. We have to look at all ~60,000 applications for that information.
>
> ============
> Dr. Michael P. McDonald
> Associate Professor
> George Mason University
> 4400 University Drive - 3F4
> Fairfax, VA 22030-4444
>
> phone: 703-993-4191 (office)
> e-mail: mmcdon at gmu.edu
> web: http://elections.gmu.edu
> twitter: @ElectProject
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Law-election mailing list
> Law-election at department-lists.uci.edu
> http://department-lists.uci.edu/mailman/listinfo/law-election
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Law-election mailing list
> Law-election at department-lists.uci.edu
> http://department-lists.uci.edu/mailman/listinfo/law-election
> _______________________________________________
> Law-election mailing list
> Law-election at department-lists.uci.edu
> http://department-lists.uci.edu/mailman/listinfo/law-election
>
<- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -> To ensure compliance with requirements imposed by the IRS, we inform you that, unless specifically indicated otherwise, any tax advice contained in this communication (including any
attachments) was not intended or written to be used, and cannot be used, for the purpose of (i) avoiding tax-related penalties under the Internal Revenue Code, or (ii) promoting, marketing, or recommending to another party any tax-related matter addressed herein.
This message is for the use of the intended recipient only. It is from a law firm and may contain information that is privileged and confidential. If you are not the intended recipient any disclosure, copying, future distribution, or use of this communication is prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please advise us by return e-mail, or if you have received this communication by fax advise us by telephone and delete/destroy the document.
<-->
View list directory