IRS Targeted NAACP In 2004

In 2004 the NAACP was targeted by the IRS for improper activity for criticizing the Bush administration.

“We have received information that during your 2004 convention in Philadelphia, your organization distributed statements in opposition of George W. Bush for the office of presidency,” the IRS wrote in an audit notice that the group released to the media at the time.

Auditors also notified the group that it could be subject to a 10 percent tax for political expenditures as well as a 2.5 percent tax on any manager that signed off on the political activity.

The NAACP went public and sparked a now-familiar firestorm. Democrats in Congress were up in arms and called for answers about what constitutes political activity and questioning the political motivations of the agency…

It took more than two years and a lengthy legal battle for the IRS to drop its case against the NAACP. That was all well before the Supreme Court unleashed a flood of political groups into the IRS pool with its Citizens United decision.

“It caught the IRS completely flatfooted,” Lloyd Mayer, one of the attorneys that represented the NAACP in the case, told POLITICO on Monday. “They had never even thought of the possibility that one of their audit targets would go public and accuse the agency of bias.”

By: Cheston Catalano

Cheston Catalano is a Kentucky-based journalist whose work has been featured in the Chattanooga Times Free Press and the Clarksville Leaf Chronicle. He is a long-time contributor to Liberaland.