In one of the first cases brought to stop the Administration’s efforts to “pause” federal programs at the U.S. Agency for International Development, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia (Loren L. Alikhan) issued an “administrative stay” in a suit brought by the National Council of Nonprofits and others against the Office of Management and Budget.

A federal District Court (Jamal N. Whitehead) in Washington issued a temporary restraining order against an indefinite pause in the U.S.

A federal District Court in Northern California (William Alsup) has issued a temporary restraining order of firing probationary employees pursuant to directives from the Office of Personnel Management.  The plaintiffs included a number of individual employees who had been terminated and a group of organizations, including the American Federation of Government Employees and numerous nonprofit organizations with interests in specific governmental programs.

The taxpayers valued the property sold to a charitable organization at $15.8 million and claimed a total charitable contribution deduction on the basis of their appraisal of the property compared to the bargain-sale price the charity paid for it. In reviewing the transaction, the Internal Revenue Service concluded that the property was worth only $4.05 million and reduced the claimed charitable contribution deduction taken over several years on the taxpayers’ returns by more than $11 million.  The Tax Court has affirmed the IRS valuation and its imposition of the 40% gross valuati

A former trustee of a separately organized state chapter of the Arthritis Foundation has no legal capacity to sue the national organization to control use of funds passed from the local to the national following dissolution of the local chapter. An appellate court in Ohio has affirmed a trial court ruling dismissing the complaint, while holding that the basis for dismissal was a lack of legal capacity to sue rather than a lack of standing to sue. 

The Internal Revenue Service has issued two new Technical Guides, described as “comprehensive, issue-specific documents that update and combine Audit Technique Guides with other technical content.”  The new Guides are TG 2 concerning single-parent title-holding corporations exempt under section 501(c)(2) of the Tax Code and TG 25 for multiple-parent title-holding corporations exempt under section 501(c)(25).

When William N. Ford, Sr., the president of the Sterling Foundation, sought to purchase real estate in New Mexico on which to run an addiction and treatment center, he was rebuffed by Susan Lynn Lavendar Baran, the president of the Ann Wigmore Foundation that owned the land.  As an alternative after several further attempts to buy the property failed, on November 12, 2018, Ford suggested that the two nonprofits merge.  Lavandar (as she was called throughout the ultimate Court opinion) declined that offer as well.