In March the Voter Education Committee (VEC), a 527 organization, sought a constitutional challenge to Washington state law which requires any organization found to support or oppose a candidate or ballot issue to register as a political committee and have their finances regulated. VEC considers the definition of "political committee" to be constitutionally vague. And recently last week on June 2, the U.S. Supreme Court denied the hearing of the case. The Supreme Court decision lets stand the Washington State Supreme Court ruling that VEC should have registered as a political committee.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) held a phone forum on the role tax exempt organizations can play in the electoral process, addressing issues of political activity, lobbying and issue advocacy. 501(c)(3) organizations can educate voters, register voters, and encourage higher voter turnout, as long as the activity is carried out in an unbiased way. According to BNA Money and Politics ($$), the IRS is concentrating on issue advocacy because it is increasingly finding situations that are not covered under the precedential guidance in Revenue Ruling 2007-41.

Americans United for Separation of Church and State (AU) has reportedly requested that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) investigate a California ministry whose leader issued a press release endorsing Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

OMB Watch and the Center for Lobbying in the Public Interest filed joint comments on draft instructions for the new IRS Form 990 on May 30 that asked the agency to clarify instructions for reporting lobbying and partisan election activities.