The Tax Court has held that a filed deed conveying an historic and conservation easement to a qualified enforcement organization constitutes a contemporaneous written acknowledgment of a charitable contribution, despite the failure to obtain a specific letter specifying that no goods or services were given in return.

Nurses working a 37.5 hour work-week may pursue claims for unpaid work of more than 40 hours a week, even though they cannot use the Fair Labor Standards Act case to recover pay for the 2.5 hours before the FLSA can be invoked.  A federal District Court in New York has permitted the case to proceed as a class action based on the nurses’ testimony.

The Senate Tax Bill being considered simultaneously with the House Tax Bill in the Republicans’ effort to get something to President Trump by the end of the year, would not modify the Johnson Amendment to allow churches to engage in political activity, but would impose new unrelated business income taxes, deny across-the-board deductions for expenses in generating the unrelated business income, and would impose a tax on organizations involved in excess benefit transactions.

The “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act” (H.R.1) introduced by the Republicans in the House of Representatives contains a series of specific provisions that would affect charitable organizations but has drawn most of its criticism from national charitable organizations for its apparent impact in reducing the economic incentives for charitable giving and for partially repealing the “Johnson Amendment” to permit churches to engage in political activity.

A nonprofit membership organization including more than 700 prison inmates lacks associational standing to bring suit alleging Constitutional and statutory violations from use of excessive physical force in a state “medical unit.”   In a non-precedential decision, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has affirmed a trial court decision dismissing the nonprofit from the case.