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Thread: Over Two Dozen Nonprofits Stand Up Against IRS Attacks on Free Speech

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    Over Two Dozen Nonprofits Stand Up Against IRS Attacks on Free Speech

    Washington, DC — Over two dozen grassroots organizations are officially taking a stand against the IRS’s attempts to silence the free-speech rights of nonprofits by joining the Tax Revolution Institute’s (TRI) First Amendment Alliance.

    Groups such as Fight for the Future, Move to Amend, Taxpayers United of America, and Coffee Party USA have banded together to formally denounce Regulation 134417–13, otherwise known as the IRS “muzzle rule.”

    The full list of nonprofit groups that have so far joined TRI’s First Amendment Alliance represents the true nonpartisan nature of the issue at hand. The list currently includes: Coffee Party USA, People Against the NDAA, Common Ground Movement, Our America Initiative, Move to Amend, Fight for the Future, Florida Taxpayers Union, Ax the Tax, the Florida Tea Party, National Association of Parents, the Central Florida Tea Party, Popular Resistance, the Christian Party of America, Women-Matter.org, the Patriot Coalition, Idaho Freedom Foundation, Idaho Freedom Action, Christian Party of North Carolina, Taxpayers United of America, Taxpayer Education Foundation, The Prompting, The Human Solution International, Liberty Initiative Fund, Citizens In Charge, Citizens In Charge Foundation, Liberty Justice Center, Idaho Second Amendment Alliance, Liberty Guard, and Put Growth First.

    In a statement released on Monday, August 29, the Coffee Party encouraged its more than 1 million social-media followers to “vigorously oppose” Regulation 134417–13, calling the rule a “clumsy attempt to close the loophole which allows dark money to influence our elections.”

    The muzzle rule — initially introduced by the IRS in 2013 — aims to redefine the meaning of “electioneering” to include constitutionally protected speech, such as news reporting and issue advocacy. As TRI has previously noted, the agency’s proposed definition of electioneering is so broad that any discussion of politicians, their voting records, or even the mere mention of a political candidate’s name, is enough to have an organization stripped of its tax-exempt status.

    The Coffee Party USA notes that this rule would infringe on the rights of nonprofits to engage in “education, information, and free speech.”

    “The only organizations advocating public interests and citizen engagement with our government are nonprofit organizations,” the group’s statement reads. “These issue-advocacy organizations must not be silenced by this proposed regulation that will silence their advocacy and education efforts.”

    Other groups within the First Amendment Alliance have also recently voiced similar concerns. “The IRS is threatening free speech,” said Jared Labell, executive director of Taxpayers United of America. “It is the the duty of all taxpayers to respond loudly and emphatically, ‘no!’”

    Holmes Wilson, cofounder and co-director of Fight for the Future, also expressed the need to protect the free-speech rights of nonprofits. “When voters know where their members of Congress stand, on the issues that matter most to them, that makes democracy stronger,” he said. “Silencing the nonprofits who work to spread this information is an attack on everyone’s ability to participate in government.”

    In November 2015, Congress intervened to defund the IRS from taking action on this new rule, but those protections are set to expire on October 1 of this year. TRI has previously called on concerned citizens and organizations affected by this rule to act now by joining the First Amendment Alliance and taking the fight back to Congress.

    “The Tax Revolution Institute is pleased to welcome these groups to our growing list of organizations from across the political spectrum to our First Amendment Alliance,” TRI Program Director Jason Casella said. “We look forward to working with all of our coalition partners to protect the free speech of nonprofit organizations and ensure that the American people have the ability to organize and participate in the civic process.”

    For more information, go to FirstAA.org.


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    About the Tax Revolution Institute

    The Tax Revolution Institute (TRI) is a non-partisan, 501(c)(3)-pending organization dedicated to promoting transparency, accountability, and integrity at all levels of the US tax system, while researching and developing simple and innovative tax-reform solutions to advance freedom and prosperity for all Americans.

    Through FOIA requests, briefings, testimonies, advocacy, research studies, white papers, and educational programs, TRI will expose corruption, fraud, and incompetence within the US tax system. It will provide educational tools and resources for tax accountability to policy makers, grassroots organizations, and the American public.

    https://taxrevolution.us/two-dozen-n...s-free-speech/

    The temporary protections Congress put in place end on October 1st, 2016. If you run a non-profit political issue advocacy group or know someone who does and wish to join the First Amendment alliance, feel free to PM me.
    Quote Originally Posted by Justin Amash (R) MI-3rd
    "Young people want a Republican Party that believes in limited government and economic freedom and individual liberty, but they want a party that also acts on it.”

    THE FUTURE OF THE GOP = R[∃vo˩]ution 2.0: Rand Paul 2016

    Quote Originally Posted by NOVALibertarian View Post
    First they ignore you= Ron Paul, 2007-2008
    Then they laugh at you= Ron Paul, 2012
    Then they fight you= Rand Paul, 2014-2015
    And then you win= Rand Paul, November 8th, 2016



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    What does Moveon.org think about all this?
    "He's talkin' to his gut like it's a person!!" -me
    "dumpster diving isn't professional." - angelatc
    "You don't need a medical degree to spot obvious bullshit, that's actually a separate skill." -Scott Adams
    "When you are divided, and angry, and controlled, you target those 'different' from you, not those responsible [controllers]" -Q

    "Each of us must choose which course of action we should take: education, conventional political action, or even peaceful civil disobedience to bring about necessary changes. But let it not be said that we did nothing." - Ron Paul

    "Paul said "the wave of the future" is a coalition of anti-authoritarian progressive Democrats and libertarian Republicans in Congress opposed to domestic surveillance, opposed to starting new wars and in favor of ending the so-called War on Drugs."



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