'Déjà vu, all over again': IRS relaunches war on conservatives

(Official White House photo by Shealah Craighead)

The legal professionals at the American Center for Law and Justice are warning the actions against Christians by Joe Biden’s administration are starting to feel like “déjà vu, all over again.”

The dispute involves actions being taken by the Internal Revenue Service against organizations involving Christians, including one specific group called Christians Engaged.

In that case, the IRS put into writing the wildly untenable claim that the group’s beliefs about Christianity, the “sanctity of life, the definition of marriage, biblical justice, laws vs. lawlessness, freedom of speech, religious liberty, government and business ethics, human trafficking, fiscal responsibility in government budgeting, defense, borders and immigration, U.S. and Israel relations” all are “typically affiliated with the [Republican] party and candidates.”

The IRS said that disqualified the organization a tax-exempt status, a decision that quickly was abandoned when news of the outlandish claims appeared.

It’s almost like it’s a repeat of the attacks on tea party and Christian organizations under the administration of Barack Obama, when IRS executive Lois Lerner was caught in a series of misbehaviors. Eventually the organizations she attacked reached a settlement with the IRS.

But now, “once again,” the ACLJ is taking on the IRS, “which, this time, is under the command of President Joe Biden,” the organization said. “We have just filed a new Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, and we’re willing to take the IRS to court again if they refuse to comply.”

The ACLJ said it is requiring from the IRS “any records” on a “Be On the Lookout” list sent to or from the IRS commissioner and others.

“Our FOIA request specifically asks for any records referencing the Bible as part of the IRS’s determination process; and because we don’t want another Lois Lerner-style deleted emails situation, we covered our bases,” the group explained in an online report.

Former IRS tax-exempt chief Lois Lerner refused to testify about targeting conservative groups

Under the Obama administration, Lerner left the IRS. Also, dozens of conservative organizations got settlement checks from the government for being “wrongfully targeted for their political beliefs.”

Many of the groups got checks for about $14,000, and some were larger in the $3.5 million resolution.

The IRS official admitted no wrongdoing but lawyers said the checks that were delivered “suggest otherwise.”

And, in fact, a 2013 inspector general’s report found the IRS had singled out tea party and other conservative groups for negative treatment sometimes for nothing other than the sound of their names.

The IRS delayed for months, even years, the applications, and some groups were improperly questioned about their donors and their religious affiliations and practices. The IRS a few times even demanded answers to invasive, personal and completely inappropriate questions.

The ACLJ said its demand for information focuses on not only “how Christians Engaged was improperly targeted for its biblical beliefs, but also whether there are other acts of intimidation or other illegal acts that would show there is a larger, more nefarious targeting of Christians festering in the Biden IRS.”

The new wave of improper behavior from the IRS under Biden is “coming for conservatives AND CHRISTIANS. Perhaps it shouldn’t be so surprising as President Biden was a powerful component of the corrupt Obama-Biden administration.”

Harry Hutchison, the director of policy for the ACLJ, warned the IRS shouldn’t be trusted, because it already has voided the constitutional rights of Americans and its own consent degree.

“I think at the end of the day we should conclude that the IRS is up to its old tricks despite the fact they reversed itself in this particular case,” he said.

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