Lead Stories

In a case starting during the IRS “scandal” for allegedly holding up applications for conservative 501(c)(4) social welfare status for a variety of groups in 2011, the federal District Court for the District of Columbia has held that IRS rulings on what constitutes intervention in political campaigns are void for vagueness.  It has remanded the case for the parties to reargue their positions on the standards for deciding the case.

By Cheshire Law Group

A trial court in Pennsylvania has dismissed a claim by a Penn State University trustee that amended and restated bylaws at the University are invalid on their face.   

A non-religious nonprofit corporation may argue that its religious freedom has been infringed by the government’s denial of approval for a program to address the abuse of opioids through overdose prevention services, including supervised illegal drug use, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals.  It has returned the case to the District Court in Philadelphia to determine whether the denial violates the corporation’s religious freedom under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

A trustee of a nonprofit private secondary school is not an “agent” subject to protection from retaliation under the federal False Claims Act, a federal District Court in South Carolina has ruled.  The trustee’s claim has been dismissed on summary judgment.

The Internal Revenue Service has joined with two Evangelical churches in Texas and the National Association of Religious Broadcasters in proposing a settlement of their litigation to overturn the so-called “Johnson Amendment” to the Tax Code that prohibits churches and other charities from endorsing or opposing candidates for public office.  (See Nonprofit Issues^®, Vol. XXXIV, No. 4)

Directors of a Minnesota nonprofit corporation who were sued by another director for defamation are immune from liability under the state’s volunteer immunity law, an appellate court in Minnesota has ruled.  The director’s claim for vicarious liability of the corporation has also been denied because the organization had already dissolved.