Just call this administration "scandal city": from the IRS to DOJ to NSA, Federal government agencies--and the Administration itself--under Pres. Barack Obama have been an alphabet soup of scandals and lies.

• Author: Emord, Jonathan W.
• Position: National Affairs - Cover story

FORMER Sen. Russell B. Long (D.-La.) summed up the political sport of taxation this way: "Don't tax you, don't tax me, tax that fellow behind the tree." Truth be told, the Internal Revenue Service scandal, whereby it violated the First Amendment and Hatch Act by engaging in based, viewpoint-based discrimination against Tea Party and Patriot nonprofits, although reprehensible, is an old political story. By its very nature, progressive tax policy aims at discriminating against people based on wealth, affiliation, and status. To be sure, there is a difference between public adoption of discriminatory tax laws and the nonpublic, political witch hunts performed by the IRS but, in the end, the lesson to be learned is that events of this sort are not isolated, but routine, in a state that is so large and taxes so much that it perennially is prone to abuse of power by political incumbents against political challengers.

In Congress, members routinely legislate tax benefits of one kind or another for special interest groups, effectively discriminating in favor of select groups. Administrations, since at least Franklin Delano Roosevelt's, have depended upon IRS political appointees to create tax problems for opponents. Among those the IRS audited in service to FDR were his critics Sen. Huey R Long (D.La., father of the aforementioned Sen. Russell B. Long), Catholic priest Charles Coughlin; and Hoover Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon. Pres. Roosevelt's son, Elliott, wrote this of FDR: "My father ... may have been the originator of the concept of employing the IRS as a weapon of political retribution."

Pres. John E Kennedy's Administration targeted conservative groups, like the John Birch Society, for discriminatory tax treatment. Pres. Richard Nixon's famous "enemies list" included political leaders, think tanks, reporters, and entertainers that were slated for discriminatory tax treatment, acts for which in 1974 the House Judiciary Committee included a recommendation for impeachment, alleging that Nixon violated "the constitutional rights of citizens" by obtaining "confidential information contained in income tax returns for purposes not authorized by law."

The foregoing abuses of IRS power were somewhat less comprehensive than the present IRS action calling into question the entitlement of at least 140 Tea Party and Patriot nonprofits to tax-exempt status over several years.

In his May 14 report entitled "Inappropriate Criteria Were Used to Identify Tax-Exempt Applications for Review," Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration J. Russell George explains that, at the behest of members of Congress, he initiated a review to determine whether the following allegations were true: that the IRS targeted specific groups applying for tax-exempt status; delayed the processing of targeted groups' applications; and requested unnecessary information from the targeted groups. In short, did the IRS harass certain groups based on their political affiliation with the Tea Party? George found that indeed the IRS had.

In particular, the IG found that, for a period stemming from at least early in 2010, the "IRS used inappropriate criteria that identified for review Tea Party and other organizations applying for tax-exempt status based upon their names or policy positions instead of indications of potential political campaign intervention. Ineffective management (1) allowed inappropriate criteria to be developed and stay in place for more than 18 months, (2) resulted in substantial delays in processing certain applications, and (3) allowed unnecessary information requests to be issued."

In short, the IRS harassed selected groups based on its presumption that they were affiliated with the Tea Party. As anyone who has worked in the Federal government knows, nothing systematic of this sort goes on without the knowledge of supervisors and, indeed, without at least the passive acquiescence of the agency's chief political officer, here the IRS Commissioner. Moreover, while the IRS could have initiated this abuse of power all on its own, members of Congress and Fox News should dig deep to see if there are links to those involved in the reelection campaign of Pres. Barack Obama or to political operatives in the White House.

It already is apparent that senior Treasury officials, including Deputy Treasury Secretary Neal Wolin, were notified of the targeting allegations as early as June 2012, yet apparently took no action to halt the abuses until the present. Moreover, Sarah Hall Ingram, the former Deputy IRS Commissioner who headed the Tax-Exempt and Government Entities Division (the one that oversaw the targeting operation) now is Director of the IRS Affordable Care Act Division (the one that oversees the enforcement of "tax penalties" against those who choose not to buy health insurance under ObamaCare).

Actions like the IRS targeting of Tea Party and Patriot groups particularly are galling because they occur in secret, entirely without public scrutiny. Here, the IRS miscalculated, failing to comprehend that the Treasury IG for Tax Administration truly was independent of the IRS and, therefore, could, at the behest of Republican members of Congress, actually pursue an investigation of the service with vigor. It is no wonder, then, that Acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller (who resigned under pressure from the White House), aware that the report would be damning and that he could not stop its release, moved in early May to beat the IG to the punch and announce the findings, albeit in language that suggested "error" rather than a political witch hunt. He reiterated that same position (which strains logic to the breaking point) to the consternation of most members of the House Ways and Means Committee on May 17 in heated testimony that left little doubt that Miller's legal problems are just beginning.

Federal law prohibits the partisan targeting undertaken by IRS employees in the tax exempt organizations division. Under the Hatch Act, an IRS employee lawfully may not discourage political activity or associations by anyone having business before the service. Calculated delays in the processing of Tea Party and Patriot group applications for tax exempt status constitute discouragement of those groups' political activity.

Actions of this sort violate the First Amendment, which forbids government from engaging in speaker--and viewpoint-based discrimination and from violating citizens' fight to freedom of association. IRS targeting of groups based on their inclusion of Tea Party or Patriot in their names constitutes such a violation. Likewise...