The federal District Court for the District of Columbia (Richard J. Leon) has found that a Trump Executive Order suspending security clearances of attorneys at the Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr law firm, terminating governmental contracts with the firm or with contractors retaining the firm for legal work, investigating it for discriminatory practices, and limiting its lawyers’ access to federal buildings is unconstitutional.  The Court said it violated the First and Fifth Amendments and the Spending Clause of the Constitution.

The Internal Revenue System has released three new technical guides that update and combine audit technique guides and other technical information for the benefit of staff and the public.  The Guides pronounce that they are not official pronouncements and cannot be used as such, but do reflect current positions of the Service.

TG 3-8 addresses the concepts of inurement and private benefit in 501(c)(3) charities.

A federal District Court in the Northern District of California (Jon S.

The Supreme Court of California has reversed lower courts and held that a release of liability signed by a rider in a charity bike ride is ineffective against a city that did not adequately maintain the public road on which the rider was injured.  The Court said the release was void as against public policy.

The U.S. Supreme Court, as expected, has reversed a decision of the Wisconsin Supreme Court and held that the Catholic Charities Bureau and four affiliates in Superior WI qualify for the religious exemption to the state unemployment compensation law.  In a unanimous decision, the Court had held that the state court’s interpretation of the rule does not survive strict scrutiny under the First Amendment.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has clarified its standard for determining whether a charity should lose its state charitable tax exemption for violating its requirement to operate “entirely free” from private profit motive.  It has held that an executive compensation bonus based in part on the economic results of a hospital is permissible where the total compensation is reasonable and is within the fair market value when compared to similar executives in similar institutions.

The federal District Court for the District of Columbia (Reggie B. Walton) has granted summary judgment to two ousted directors of the U.S. Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board and ordered their reinstatement to their positions.

The federal District Court in the District of Columbia (Paul L. Friedman) has granted a preliminary injunction against the U.S. Department of Education to stop the termination of a grant to the Southern Education Foundation.  SEF is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit formed in 1867 to help educate formerly enslaved persons after the Civil War and advocating against the then-lawful segregation in public education.  It has worked to train teachers, provide educational materials, and build schools for formerly enslaved persons and poor whites in the Southern states.