AU challenges tax exempt status of Liberty University

[Marc Stern]

Note that the statute talks of endorsing or opposing candidates not political parties.
Marc stern


----- Original Message -----
From: religionlaw-bounces at lists.ucla.edu <religionlaw-bounces at lists.ucla.edu>
To: religionlaw at lists.ucla.edu <religionlaw at lists.ucla.edu>
Sent: Fri May 29 17:25:21 2009
Subject: RE: AU challenges tax exempt status of Liberty University

AU lacks standing to litigate the tax liability of another taxpayer; that is settled by 2 or 3 Supreme Court cases.  So all AU can do is call the problem to the attention of the IRS, and try to generate publicity to pressure the IRS.  The IRS proceeds very cautiously in these cases, enforcing mostly by jawboning; it has actually pulled tax exemptions only in the most egregious cases.  I have no idea if the IRS will think this is clear cut enough to justify litigation, but I rather doubt it.

Does anyone know if student groups get university money?  Or student activity money, raised from the students without anyone getting a tax deduction?

Quoting Ed Brayton <stcynic at gmail.com>:

> But I'm not sure their purpose for doing so has any relevance for the legal
> question here. This is not an establishment clause challenge where the
> purpose prong comes into play, it's a challenge to their tax exempt status
> under the IRS code. I don't know what the standard is for such a challenge,
> but I can't imagine that purpose would matter. If a church provided a
> material benefit to one candidate over another but said that their purpose
> was not political but based solely on their concern about abortion, would
> that be less of a possible problem legally? I'm not sure the AU really has
> much of a legal case here, since as I said I really don't know much about
> the precedents or standards for this particular type of challenge, but it
> doesn't seem to me that merely stating their purpose does much to mitigate
> the challenge.
>
> Ed Brayton
>
>
>


Douglas Laycock
Yale Kamisar Collegiate Professor of Law
University of Michigan Law School
625 S. State St.
Ann Arbor, MI  48109-1215
  734-647-9713

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