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Full-Text Articles in Tax Law
Antidiscrimination And Tax Exemption, Alex Zhang
Antidiscrimination And Tax Exemption, Alex Zhang
Faculty Articles
The Supreme Court held, in Bob Jones University v. United States, that violations of fundamental public policy— including race discrimination in education—disqualify an entity for tax exemption. The holding of the case was broad, and its results cohered with the ideals of progressive society: the government ought not to subsidize discrimination, particularly of marginalized groups. But almost four decades later, the decision has never realized its antidiscriminatory potential. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has limited implementation to the narrowest facts of the case. The scholarly literature has not formulated a systematic account of how to enforce the Bob Jones …
Speak Up: Issue Advocacy In Increasingly Politicized Times, Sally Wagenmaker
Speak Up: Issue Advocacy In Increasingly Politicized Times, Sally Wagenmaker
The Journal of Business, Entrepreneurship & the Law
This article first provides a brief primer on current constraints affecting Section 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) organizations' communications within the context of what has become known as “issue advocacy.” It then sets forth the problem of increasing politicization of nonprofits' issue advocacy activities. The article next evaluates related constitutional tensions for politically tinged issue advocacy, through the lens of the Supreme Court's free speech decisions. It concludes by addressing how the IRS's different content-based standards for issue advocacy are susceptible to abuse, are otherwise constitutionally suspect, and therefore warrant reform.