Southeastern Legal Foundation (SLF) is supporting the First Amendment rights of its friend and fellow public interest legal organization, Buckeye Institute, in its ongoing fight to protect donor privacy. Over a decade ago, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) selected Buckeye for an audit at the time when Buckeye was a leading voice opposing Obama’s Medicaid expansion plans. Donors feared that the audit would reveal their names and other personal information and many were deterred from giving altogether. This chilling effect is a violation of donors’ and Buckeye’s freedom of speech and association which will have a negative impact on anyone wanting to contribute to causes important to them.
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SLF submitted an amicus brief with 140 other organizations before the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, arguing that the IRS cannot require organizations to hand over the names and addresses of substantial contributors or face consequences. Every citizen has the right to associate with the beliefs and ideas they want to support, and they have the right to do so anonymously.
The government cannot abuse its power to force individuals to conform to certain beliefs, whether directly or indirectly. By threatening to reveal information about donors, the IRS is scaring them into silence, deterring them from supporting Buckeye and other causes they support, and violating their First Amendment rights.