USA Today - 1959 IRS Rule is at the Center of Tea Party Scandal

By Deirdre Shesgreen, USAToday.com

The seeds of the current Internal Revenue Service targeting scandal were planted more than five decades ago, sprouting from an obscure rule issued in 1959 allowing tax-exempt groups to start dabbling in politics.

Critics say that IRS rule opened a loophole for political groups to "masquerade" as social welfare groups, while spending millions of dollars trying to influence federal elections. The rule has few defenders today. In recent weeks, campaign-finance watchdogs, Tea Party activists and lawmakers have all denounced it as nebulous, out-dated and ill-conceived.

"The regulations are unconstitutional because they're so vague," said Jay Sekulow, chief counsel of the American Center for Law and Justice, a conservative organization suing the IRS over the agency's targeting of conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status. . . .

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