Sarah Mirando  |  May 21, 2013

Category: Legal News

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NorCal Tea Party PatriotsA Tea Party group out of California has filed a class action lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service, claiming the tax agency unfairly and illegally singled out members for “intensive and intrusive scrutiny” because they belonged to a group critical of how the country is being run.

The NorCal Tea Party Patriots claim in the class action lawsuit that they suffered years of delay and expense while waiting for their tax exemption applications to go through, costing them valuable time and money and forcing them to make unconstitutional disclosers regarding their beliefs and activities.

“The result was a muffling and muzzling of free expression,” according to the class action lawsuit, which accuses the IRS of violating the Privacy Act of 1974 and the First and Fifth Amendments.

The complaint says only conservative groups with terms like “tea party” or “patriots” in their titles were subjected to the additional security that occurred between 2010 and 2012. Also singled out for special scrutiny were groups who had a statement in the case file criticizing “how the country is being run,” the class action lawsuit says.

The class action lawsuit says “one tactic used by the IRS to harass, intimidate and discriminate against conservative and libertarian groups critical of the government was to demand massive disclosure of information not authorized by the Internal Revenue Code or any other federal law.”

The IRS also delayed processing their applications for years.

The NorCal Tea Party Patriots are seeking to represent a class of all conservative and libertarian groups targeted for additional scrutiny by the IRS from March 1, 2010 through May 15, 2012. They are seeking damages for violation of the Privacy Act and the their constitutional rights. The class action is also seeking an injunction barring the IRS form political discrimination.

The case is NorCal Tea Party Patriots et al. v. the Internal Revenue Service et al., Case No. 13-cv-00341, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio.

The plaintiffs are represented by David Langdon and Joshua Bolinger of Langdon Law LLC and Todd Graves and Edward Greim of Graves Bartle Marcus & Garrett LLC.

UPDATE: The Tea Party class action lawsuit against the IRS continues to grow with new organizations joining the case and new allegations added in an amended complaint filed Jan. 23, 2014.

UPDATE 2: On April 4, 2018, a $3.5 million settlement was  preliminarily approved in a class action alleging that the IRS illegally targeted conservative groups.

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3 thoughts onCalifornia Tea Party Group Files Class Action Lawsuit Against IRS

  1. Judi says:

    After a 48 year work history, and NEVER being audited, out of the blue, and now that I’m retired and living on a fixed income with only a tax write off for my mortgage, I got audited in 2012. What are the odds? Yes, I’m a conservative, but not a member of the Tea Party. I will admit, I am a vocal member of the Conservative Party, both through facebook, and a blog. After reading how the NSA seeks out those who voice opposing opinions to this administration, I guess there should have been no surprise on my being audited. It only serves to prove that the media was correct in reporting the coersion used by both the NSA and the IRS against honest tax paying citizens. It’s a disgrace!!

  2. jim says:

    I hope they lose big time. they are nothing but trouble. and I don’t mean the irs.

  3. hadassah brown says:

    This year I thought it was strange that I had to wait on the IRS , they sent out a letter and told me I needed additional information and to call before a certain time or I could lose my refund. I called and it took a month to get through and before that I had filed in feb. but they would not let filed until Feb. 2013 and than we waited another month because of a form they withheld. When I did get through they ask a lot of question that was very new to me when I ask what was this all about they wouldn’t answer . I say discrimination against our group also .

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