© AP
Demonstrators in 2013 protest the Internal Revenue Service's targeting of conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status.
In the latest wrinkle in the three-year-old dispute over alleged targeting of conservative nonprofits, the Internal Revenue Service compiled a new list of organizations that might be members of a class action claiming damages: The roster extends to 426 groups, a larger number than the 296 compiled by
the agency's inspector general in 2013.
Some critics of the IRS see the expanded list as a sign that the scope of the political targeting grew, though like the earlier list, it contains groups of varying political leanings.
Names include such groups as We the People Eugene, the League of Women Voters of Central Vermont, the Young Americans for Liberty Foundation, and the Patriots of Charleston.
The
list was first reported by the
Washington Times. It was pulled from a May 24 Justice Department Tax Division filing in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio in the case
NorCal Tea Party Patriots v. the Internal Revenue Service. Plaintiffs claim the IRS' Exempt Organizations division violated their privacy and constitutional rights by
delaying and scrutinizing their applications for tax-exempt status as social welfare groups.
The list of class action members, required by a circuit court judge's order in March, was accompanied by a note from Justice Department attorneys noting that
the original list was even higher, but the agency had received opt-out requests for the class action from 40 entities. The IRS had received 165 notices marked "return to sender," 35 of which were for groups with no known alternative address.
Comment: This woman needs to be locked up in a prison for all the things she has done while in public office. It's only because we live in a bizarro world where psychopathy reigns that she is not in prison.
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