By Adam Pagnucco.
President Donald Trump’s move to revoke Harvard University’s nonprofit status is not just a shot against colleges in his war against diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs. It could also transform into a devastating move to crack down on progressive advocacy groups, both in Maryland and across the country.
First, presidents cannot unilaterally revoke any organization’s nonprofit status. In fact, it’s illegal for presidents and their subordinates to even try. But since the Supreme Court has granted presidents near-blanket immunity from prosecution and Trump controls federal prosecutors, the legal prohibition may not matter much. And Trump has little regard for laws of any kind. In any event, little is stopping the IRS from pursuing such things without open prompting from the president.
The Post’s article on this subject contained this account which should instill fear in all left-leaning nonprofits.
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Since taking office, the Trump administration has displaced numerous IRS leaders to empower political allies at the agency. [Andrew] De Mello took over as chief counsel in March after the Treasury Department demoted a career IRS attorney who was seen as blocking the administration’s attempt to use confidential tax data to search for undocumented immigrants, The Washington Post has reported. Numerous IRS attorneys warned the administration that the idea violated privacy laws.
Trump appointed Gary Shapley the agency’s acting commissioner after a series of rapid promotions.
Shapley told staff members in recent weeks that one of his first orders of business as an agency executive was to review and revoke the tax-free status of groups suggested by Republican allies in Congress, three of the people said.
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That last sentence is absolutely incredible. Can you imagine ultra-right-wing Congressman Andy Harris sending a hit list to the IRS? Can you imagine who would be on it? (The irony here is that Harris is in office because of gerrymandering by Annapolis Democrats, who packed his district with Republicans to remove them from surrounding blue districts.) Even former President Richard Nixon, whose staff tried to politicize the IRS, could not complete such a project before resigning from office.
The Post later reported, “Speaking Thursday from the Oval Office, Trump said his administration was considering attempting to revoke tax-exempt status from other nonprofits, including civil society and environmental groups that oppose his administration.”
Why does this matter for political advocacy? The reason is that groups from all over the political spectrum have set up affiliated nonprofits that practice advocacy and politics. 501(c)(3) nonprofits can educate the public and may engage in limited lobbying, but they can’t engage in partisan politics. 501(c)(4) nonprofits can engage in lobbying and limited political activity. Neither of these kinds of groups are required to release their contributor lists to the public. Super PACs may engage in unlimited political activity but they must release their contributions. Many groups establish affiliates across nonprofit categories with common offices and leadership for the purpose of voter education and political activity. And when donor-shielded 501(c)(4) money makes its way into Super PACs, what we have is vast amounts of dark money entering the political system. Both the right and the left have engaged in such practices since Citizens United vs FEC (2010) and Speechnow.org vs FEC (2010) legalized Super PACs.
What happens if the Trump-dominated IRS starts cracking down on the tax status of left-wing nonprofits? In July 2024, American Prospect writer Robert Kuttner laid out a darkly prophetic scenario on how Trump could severely damage the progressive advocacy world. (The American Prospect is a progressive publication.) Kuttner notes the dependence of progressive groups on affiliated c3s and c4s “to target, register, and mobilize voters,” and when they are combined with Super PACs, they can play in elections. Kuttner lays out the interest of U.S. House Republicans, GOP Senator John Cornyn and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in targeting progressive nonprofits, and that was before Trump was elected. Then he says this: “Progressive electoral machinery has become reliant on a model that is a potential sitting duck for a Trumpified, weaponized IRS.”
Sure, a one-sided campaign to revoke nonprofit status for progressive groups would be legally problematic. But who would stop Trump’s IRS? Trump’s Justice Department? The Trump-packed Supreme Court? At minimum, targeted groups would be tied up in litigation with the IRS for years. Harvard can afford that. How many progressive nonprofits could? And what happens if Trump goes after their donors too?
Kuttner believes the primary target of a Trump IRS would be Planned Parenthood. In Maryland, the logical target would be CASA. Back in November 2023, I laid out CASA’s nonprofit affiliate structure and its political spending in two posts. Like many other groups on both the right and the left, CASA has a c3, a c4 and a Super PAC which are legally distinct but share offices and leadership. CASA once called them “the CASA family of organizations,” but it has since discarded that language. At the state level, the Casa in Action PAC has raised more than $700,000 since May 2022 for elections in Maryland with more than 40% of it coming from its c4, making the ultimate source of that part of its funding impossible to trace. A Trump attack on the CASA affiliates’ nonprofit status would be problematic for both their charitable activities (since tax deductions to its c3 would come under fire) and their political activities.
And Trump definitely has an incentive to go after them. Not only is CASA one of the nation’s foremost immigrant rights groups, it has also sued the Trump administration on multiple occasions. And its c3 is hardly genteel when describing the activities of Trump and his ally, Elon Musk.
CASA takes on Trump, Musk and MAGA.
A MAGA IRS targeting CASA and other progressive nonprofit groups would be a game changer in Maryland, MoCo and the nation. Will Kuttner’s apocalyptic vision become real? And if it does, can anyone stop it?