Because it is apparent that the Obama administration’s Justice Department is not going to even consider the idea of a special prosecutor in the IRS scandal, it leaves one to wonder if we will ever get to the bottom of the scandal?<\/p>\n
But, something you won’t hear much about in the news is the lawsuit that was filed by Z-Street, a pro-Isreal organization, who filed for tax exempt status on December 29, 2009<\/a>, and was told its application for tax exempt status was being delayed because “these cases are being sent to a special unit in the DC office to determine whether the organization’s activities contradict the Administration’s public policies.”<\/strong><\/p>\n They then filed a lawsuit in\u00a0August of 2010, alleging unlawful viewpoint discrimination, a First Amendment claim. The IRS tried several arguments to get the claim dismissed, all of which were dismissed by Washington DC federal district court Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, who was appointed to the bench by President Obama. In her rulings, she noted that Z-Street was not suing to gain tax exempt status, but they were suing over “viewpoint discrimination,” based on what they had been told by IRS agent Diane Gentry about contradicting the Administration’s policies.<\/p>\n Judge Jackson gave the IRS until June 26, 2014 to respond to Z-Street. That deadline has now come and gone, so the case now\u00a0enters the discovery phase of the process. This means that Z-Street can now subpoena IRS officials, put them under oath and ask them questions, as well as cross examine them closely. They can also subpoena documents and require they be produced.<\/p>\n