Oregon Capitol Watch Joins Lawsuit Against the IRS

By Oregon Capitol Watch

SALEM-Oregon Capitol Watch Foundation’s Executive Director and former State Representative Jeff Kropf announces the formal filing of legal action yesterday against the Internal Revenue Service for unfairly and unconstitutionally targeting OCWF by delaying the approval of the Foundation’s 501C3 tax exempt application.

OCWF joins 40 other plaintiffs in 22 states represented by The American Center for Law and Justice in their amended filing in federal court in Washington D.C. alleging the constitutional rights of these groups were violated by secretly targeting these organizations because of their political beliefs.

“The stunning admission by the IRS that they targeted certain groups alerted us to the possibility that OCWF was one of those organizations” said Kropf. “And based on our experience with the agency we asked our foundation legal counsel Tyler Smith to contact the ACLJ, which eventually led to our joining the amended lawsuit”

The ACLJ lawsuit names US Attorney General Eric Holder, US Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, acting IRS Commissioner Werfel, former IRS Commissioner Steven Miller and other IRS employees such as Lois Lerner and Holly Paz all as defendants.

“We submitted our 501C3 tax exempt application in May of 2011 and 25 months later, we still haven’t been either denied or granted tax exempt status” said Kropf. “We finally received a request for additional information in January of 2013 asking some of the same intrusive questions that were reported on national news. We immediately complied with their request and haven’t heard a word from them since”

The lawsuit alleges the defendants violated the First and Fifth Amendments to the US Constitution and several violations for of the Administrative Procedures Act. The Plaintiffs seek judgment by jury trial, compensatory and punitive damages, plus attorney fees. The ACLJ press release, original lawsuit and amended filing can be found at: http://aclj.org/free-speech-2/jay-sekulow-aclj-now-represents-41-conservative-groups-in-federal-lawsuit-against-irs

Oregon Capitol Watch Foundation is a non profit, tax deductible educational foundation dedicated to educating citizens about how government spends their tax dollars and offering common sense ideas for improved government efficiency. www.ocwf.org