ACLJ Scores a Win Over the Biden Administration in Our Lawsuit Over IRS Targeting of Conservatives and Christians

No government agency should target Americans over their political beliefs or religious convictions. That is simply un-American. But once again, emboldened by the Biden Administration’s leftist ideology-driven agenda, the IRS is targeting conservative and Christian organizations.

And just as we’ve done before, we stood up to the Deep State IRS, and now we’ve already seen our first win.

Remember when we told you how the IRS initially refused tax-exempt status to a religious organization – Christians Engaged – because, among other absurd reasons, they encourage prayer for our leaders? In fact, as inconceivable as it may seem, the IRS actually listed the organization’s beliefs in prayer and Biblical values among the reasons in their letter for rejecting Christians Engaged from tax-exempt status.

It’s hard to imagine a more blatant example of the Deep State’s unveiled political targeting, all over again. As we told you at the time: “Thankfully after significant backlash in this case and the work of our friends at First Liberty Institute, the IRS ended up granting Christians Engaged its tax-exempt status. [But it’s] clear the IRS only changed course because it was caught, this time.”

The ACLJ took swift action, filing a new Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. We demanded all records pertaining to the decision to deny their request. Unfortunately, as has become par for the course when dealing with the Biden Administration, our FOIA request was ignored.

Team Biden continually refuses to cooperate with our legal requests. One can only surmise they know their actions are indefensible. So, left without any other recourse, we filed yet another lawsuit against the Biden Administration, this time over the IRS targeting of Christians. If President Biden doesn’t want to deal with us directly, we’ll let a federal court demand answers.

And this time we must’ve hit some kind of nerve. In response to our lawsuit, the Biden IRS filed a Motion to Dismiss. That means they asked the court to terminate our case before the court even had a chance to hear any evidence or make any rulings on the requests we brought in our lawsuit. The court rejected the IRS's motion.

In the court's words:

[T]he IRS has provided nothing more than conclusory assertions and oblique hints about the purported vague and burdensome nature of the request, without explaining why each category of records requested is vague and burdensome in context. . . . And although the IRS did include a declaration in support of its motion, that declaration also is conclusory about these alleged deficiencies.

In sum, the court concluded that "the IRS has not met its burden of showing that the ACLJ's FOIA request is improper."

Now our case will proceed, just as the law allows. The IRS's attempt to block us from getting these critical records has failed. That's a win for the American people.

But we know we cannot rest. This is one victory. But we don’t expect the Deep State to slink away for long. They targeted conservatives under the leadership of the Obama-Biden Administration and we beat them in court. We even forced the Director of the IRS to apologize in court. One would think such a legal drubbing might give the Deep State pause before it attacked conservatives again. And yet, now that President Biden has the keys, here we are again.

ACLJ Chief Counsel Jay Sekulow testified before Members of the House Ways and Means Committee regarding the IRS targeting of Christians and conservatives. Jay cited this very case before the committee and urged action to prevent such egregious abuses of power by the Biden Administration.

We are gratified that the court agreed with us, throwing out the IRS’s motion to dismiss. Now our lawsuit against the Biden IRS moves forward. We will continue to keep you updated as the case progresses. 

The ACLJ will remain vigilant and be prepared to meet them in court every time. Make no mistake, if they get away with targeting conservative organizations even once, they’ll come after individuals next. THAT MEANS YOU AND ME.

We won’t let that happen. But we need YOU with us.