Nonprofit Speech Rights

Feb 8, 2016

Top 400 Taxpayers See Tax Rates Rise, But There’s More to the Story

As Americans were gathering party supplies to greet the New Year, the Internal Revenue Service released their annual report of cumulative tax data reported on the 400 tax r...

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Feb 4, 2016

Chlorine Bleach Plants Needlessly Endanger 63 Million Americans

Chlorine bleach plants across the U.S. put millions of Americans in danger of a chlorine gas release, a substance so toxic it has been used as a chemical weapon. Greenpeace’s new repo...

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Jan 25, 2016

U.S. Industrial Facilities Reported Fewer Toxic Releases in 2014

The Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) data for 2014 is now available. The good news: total toxic releases by reporting facilities decreased by nearly six percent from 2013 levels. Howe...

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Jan 22, 2016

Methane Causes Climate Change. Here's How the President Plans to Cut Emissions by 40-45 Percent.

UPDATE (Jan. 22, 2016): Today, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) released its proposed rule to reduce methane emissions...

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Past, Future of Faith-Based Initiative in the News

A late June conference sponsored by the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives (OFBCI) featured a speech by President Bush praising the faith-based initiative as "one of the most important initiatives of this Administration." On July 1, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama announced his plan to restructure the program, criticizing lack of funds for the current effort and promising to bar religious hiring discrimination for federally funded positions. The next day, Republican presidential candidate John McCain issued a statement disagreeing with Obama on the hiring issue.

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Colorado Priests Not Allowed to Make Donations to Candidates

Jul 3, 2008 by Amanda Adams*

According to the Denver Post, Priests and deacons serving in the Archdiocese of Denver will be prohibited from donating money to political candidates and from making endorsements under an upcoming directive from Archbishop Charles Chaput. The directive states that clerics "may not publicly participate or endorse political campaigns or initiatives, or publicly affiliate themselves with groups whose primary purpose is to do so." This is of interest because it seems that they would not be allowed to donate in the capacity as a private citizen, separate from their occupational role as a priest.

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SpeechNow.org Denied Preliminary Injunction

Jul 2, 2008 by Amanda Adams*

A federal judge has denied a preliminary injunction request by SpeechNow.org.

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Forms and Instructions for LD-203 Released

Jul 1, 2008 by Amanda Adams*

BNA Money and Politics ($$) reports that forms and instructions for the new lobbying disclosure form, LD-203, have been released. Lobbyists and their organizations, as mandated under the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act, will have to detail the amount of campaign contributions and other payments linked to lawmakers. The new disclosure form will have to be filed twice a year, first filing deadline is July 30, 2008. The forms that lobbyists and lobbying organizations must fill out have menus calling for reporting of four types of contributions or payments:

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TIGTA Releases Audit of Political Activities Compliance Initiative (PACI)

Jun 30, 2008 by Amanda Adams*

The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) has released an audit report addressing improvements in educating and enforcing the prohibition against political activities for tax-exempt organizations. The purpose of the audit was to determine the effectiveness of the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) Political Activities Compliance Initiative (the Initiative). The audit addressed how effective the IRS is in addressing alleged incidences of political campaign intervention and "whether actions had detected repeated campaign intervention by previously identified organizations."

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Senate Holds Off on FISA

Jun 27, 2008 by Amanda Adams*

CQ ($$) reports that the Senate will take up a rewrite of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) after returning from the July 4th recess on July 8th. On June 25 the Senate voted 80-15, to limit debate on a motion to proceed to the bill (HR 6304).

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Internet Evangelist Ready to Challenge IRS Investigation

Jun 27, 2008 by Amanda Adams*

In June of last year, Americans United for Separation of Church and State (AU) requested that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) investigate Bill Keller for possibly violating the political campaign intervention prohibition for tax exempt organizations. Keller has a call-in show on a Tampa television station and a Web site called Liveprayer.com. On May 11, 2007 Keller warned listeners; "if you vote for Mitt Romney, you are voting for Satan!" Now, the public is aware that the IRS is in fact investigating the case. According to the St.

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Voter ID Lawsuits Filed in Indiana

Jun 27, 2008 by Amanda Adams*

It has been two months since the controversial Supreme Court decision upholding Indiana's voter identification law requiring photo ID for anyone casting a ballot. Since the Supreme Court left open as applied challenges in federal court and state constitution challenges, two lawsuits in Indiana have already been filed.

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Nonprofits See Election Year Opportunity

Jun 25, 2008 by Amanda Adams*

The Chronicle of Philanthropy ($$) has an interesting article on how nonprofits are utilizing the excitement of this election season.

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All FEC Nominees Finally Confirmed

Jun 25, 2008 by Amanda Adams*

By unanimous consent, the Senate finally approved five members of the Federal Election Commission (FEC). After the new members are sworn in, the agency will be back to full working order, and should be very busy. CQ Politics reports; "After months of squabbling over new members for the Federal Election Commission, the Senate confirmed five new officials Tuesday with little fanfare, putting the long-defunct commission back in working order. . . .

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