{"id":231,"date":"2026-06-07T09:07:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-07T09:07:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/?p=231"},"modified":"2026-06-07T09:07:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-07T09:07:11","slug":"this-week-in-nation-history-the-politicization-of-the-irs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/?p=231","title":{"rendered":"This Week in &#8216;Nation&#8217; History: The Politicization of the IRS"},"content":{"rendered":"<article>\n<div>\n<div>\n<article>\n<header>\n<div>\n<ul>\n<li>Politics<\/li>\n<li>May 25, 2013<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h1>This Week in \u2018Nation\u2019 History: The Politicization of the IRS<\/h1>\n<h1>This Week in \u2018Nation\u2019 History: The Politicization of the IRS<\/h1>\n<h2>\n<p>This isn\u2019t the first time the IRS has been accused of tareting political opponents\u2014and it hasn\u2019t always been right-wing groups who have drawn its scrutiny.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/?p=230\">\u2018Gross Cruelty and Fraud\u2019 in the Gulf of Tonkin: A Brief History<\/a><\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<section>\n<time>May 25, 2013<\/time><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>The recent imbroglio involving the IRS allegedly targeting conservative groups for investigation is not the first time the agency has been accused of politicizing its tax assessments\u2014and, as it almost goes without saying, it hasn\u2019t always been right-leaning groups who have drawn its scrutiny.\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>A major scandal erupted in 1951 after it was discovered that individual IRS agents were being routinely bribed into ruling in favor of certain, typically affluent, taxpayers. A <em>Nation<\/em> article in early 1952 titled  by Norman Redlich, argued that IRS scandals \u201cwill exist as long as personal judgments determine how much money individuals and corporations shall pay to the Federal Treasury each year.\u201d Moreover, Redlich argued, vague or lax enforcement regulations\u2014precisely what caused a woefully understaffed IRS office in Cincinatti in 2010 to scrutinize groups with \u201ctea party\u201d or \u201cpatriot\u201d in their names\u2014lead to shoddy evaluation practices and, ultimately, to a loss of confidence in the tax collection process and in the government as a whole.<\/p>\n<p>The quickest way to destroy confidence [in the tax system] is to let the public think that some persons\u2026are \u201cgetting away with something\u201d\u2026<\/p>\n<p>Corruption in tax-gathering can never be entirely eliminated from a tax system as extensive as ours. But it can be minimized, and certainly it should not be encouraged by inefficient organization, careless administrative practices, lax enforcement of the law, or patronage politics.<\/p>\n<p>While the current scandal suggests the presence of \u201ccorruption\u201d only in the loosest sense, the point remains. As we quoted Michael Macleod Ball, chief of staff at ACLU\u2019s Washington legislative office, in our editorial last week: \u201cEven the appearance of playing partisan politics with the tax code is about as constitutionally troubling as it gets.\u201d Much of this, we argued, is due to the hazy legality surrounding campaign finance in the wake of the <em>Citizens United<\/em> decision. Sadly, it often seems this vicious circle is precisely the goal of those groups who now claim to be victimized, and who have been trying to insert billions of dollars into the electoral process and to starve government agencies like the IRS for years.<\/p>\n<p>The Nixon administration aggressively used the IRS to go after its \u201cenemies,\u201d as Senator Frank Church\u2019s Senate Intelligence Committee documented with devastating detail in its mid-1970s reports. Years before the Church Committee, however, the tax lawyer Joseph Ruskay wrote for <em>The Nation<\/em>, in from 1972, about how Nixon\u2019s IRS \u201chas demonstrated an unprecedented interest in the civil rights, anti-poverty and anti-war activities of certain religious organizations.\u201d In 1976, an article titled  by Jason Berry\u2014who wrote most recently for the magazine about Pope John Paul II\u2019s legacy, in 2011\u2014reported that the agency was routinely using its investigative powers to target leaders of the civil rights movement so as to \u201coffset the gains\u201d made in the previous twenty years. \u201cIn Mississippi, Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama, the IRS functions, in effect, as an arm of political systems which are trying by economic means to keep blacks out of power,\u201d Berry wrote. As in the early 1950s and as today, those local agents were permitted to unfairly target civil rights leaders because of \u201cthe structure of the IRS nationally and the perversion of its legitimate powers by regional agents.\u201d After <em>Citizens United<\/em>, the rules governing the tax status so-called social welfare groups are \u201cvery much in flux,\u201d as we argued in last week\u2019s editorial: \u201cIt is absurd\u2014and wrong\u2014to expect IRS auditors to sort the mess out.\u201d But so long as the federal regulations regarding money in politics remain unclear\u2014to the benefit of those with much of it\u2014that absurdity will doubtlessly continue.<\/p>\n<p>* * *<\/p>\n<p><em>Subscribers to <\/em>The Nation<em> can access our fully searchable digital archive, which contains thousands of historic articles, essays and reviews, letters to the editor and editorials dating back to July 6, 1865.<\/em>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/?p=225\">How Much On-Screen Violence Is Too Much?<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<footer>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p>                Submit a correction<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>                Send a letter to the editor<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>                Reprints &amp; permissions<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div>\n<div>\n<h2><i>Support <\/i>The Nation<i>\u2019s June Fundraising Campaign<\/i><\/h2>\n<p>With the midterm elections now firmly upon us, the question is whether Democratic candidates will do more than merely occupy ballot lines as mild alternatives to the red-hot crisis that is Donald Trump.<\/p>\n<p>As Trump spends over $1 billion a day on a globally destabilizing war on Iran and admits that he doesn\u2019t \u201cthink about Americans\u2019 financial situation,\u201d millions across the country are struggling with the surging costs of essentials. Democrats must seize this moment and advance bold, small-\u201cd\u201d populist ideas\u2014not settle for cynical caution that once again snatches defeat from the jaws of victory.<\/p>\n<p><i>The Nation<\/i> elevates progressive ideas, movements, and elected officials achieving real change across the country into the national conversation. At the same time, our journalists are exposing how crypto and AI-funded super PACs are spending hundreds of millions of dollars to knock out candidates they oppose, reporting on the devastating impact of the Supreme Court\u2019s evisceration of the Voting Rights Act, and sounding the alarm on attempts by red states to quickly redraw electoral maps, disenfranchising Southern Black voters.<\/p>\n<p><b>We can play this critical role because of support from readers like you. This June, we\u2019re raising $20,000 to power <i>The Nation<\/i>\u2019s independent journalism in the run-up to November\u2019s immensely consequential elections.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s in our power to build a more just society, and your support at this critical moment brings us closer to that bold vision. I hope you\u2019ll donate today.<\/p>\n<p>Onward, <\/p>\n<p><span>Katrina vanden Huevel<br \/>Editor and Publisher, <i><span>The Nation<\/span><\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p><span> Katrina vanden Heuvel<svg>\n<\/svg><br \/>\n<\/span>Katrina vanden Heuvel is editor and publisher of <em>The Nation<\/em>, America\u2019s leading source of progressive politics and culture. An expert on international affairs and US politics, she is an award-winning columnist and frequent contributor to <em>The Guardian<\/em>. Vanden Heuvel is the author of several books, including <em>The Change I Believe In: Fighting for Progress in The Age of Obama<\/em>, and co-author (with Stephen F. Cohen) of <em>Voices of Glasnost: Interviews with Gorbachev\u2019s Reformers<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/atlaslivingmedia.com\/?p=224\">How Much On-Screen Violence Is Too Much?<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n<\/div>\n<p><input\/><br \/>\n<input\/><br \/>\n<\/footer>\n<\/article>\n<p>Ad Policy<br \/>\n<!-- <a class=\"inifiniteLoader\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/images\/new_infi_loader.gif\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a> -->\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Nation Magazine<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>This Week in &#8216;Nation&#8217; 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