A notable New York Times article covers new action that is being taken to challenge the Treasury Department's process for designating charities as supporters of terrorism. The Treasury Department has designated five U.S. Muslim charities as terrorist supporters seizing millions of dollars in assets, including the largest Holy Land Foundation. On Monday Holy Land sued seeking dismissal of over half of the charges against them. This decision to sue was based on the ruling last month in a Federal District Court in Los Angeles.

Attorneys Marcus S. Owens and Natalie E. Fay wrote an article titled, "Penalizing Instigators of Political Campaign Intervention." The authors suggest that in light of increased attention on IRS audits of tax-exempt groups who have engaged in campaign intervention, the IRS should redirect enforcement measures to the candidates who in fact encourage the misuse, particularly of churches. Owens and Fay describe how candidates entice a church's involvement through various examples, such as candidates who have openly included churches in their campaign strategy, leaving the churches vulnerable.

This editorial, "Dark Ages Disclosure" appeared in yesterday's Washington Post. "In an age when such reports can be filed with the click of a mouse, Senate candidates submit their disclosures on paper, with weeks of delay before they are transferred to a form available and searchable on the Internet. . . This delay is so obviously unjustified that we expected the legal glitch to be quickly fixed." It speaks of one clear-cut reform that the 109th Congress should pass before recess.

Given that the soon to be Democratic majority will have 10 unapproved spending bills, incoming House Majority Leader Hoyer was questioned on how Democrats will handle the 100-hour legislative agenda. The National Journal (subscription required) reported that Hoyer commentated that the 100 hours of legislating will take place before the continuing resolution expires. "One change in the Democrats' agenda is that the rules changes and ethics reforms promised by Democratic leaders will not be part of the 100-hour slate . . .