The Buckeye Institute v. Internal Revenue Service, et al.

Docket: No. 24-0301 (6th Cir.)

Hamilton Lincoln Law Institute filed an amicus brief in The Buckeye Institute v. Internal Revenue Service, arguing that the IRS disclosure requirement for donors of nonprofits violates the First Amendment. With the Center for Individual Rights and New Civil Liberties Alliance, HLLI filed the brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit to emphasize that the right to anonymous association is essential to preserving a vibrant civil society in which individuals feel free to support causes they believe in without fear of retaliation.

For decades, Congress granted tax-exempt status to charitable organizations without requiring that they disclose donor information. In 1969, Congress passed a reporting requirement that broadly obligated most tax-exempt nonprofit organizations to disclose the names and addresses of their “substantial contributors” on an annual basis. In 2020, Congress eliminated this disclosure requirement for nearly all tax-exempt entities except those organized under Internal Revenue Code 501(c)(3). It did so based on the conclusion that disclosure was not needed for enforcement and the requirement increased compliance costs and the risk of inadvertent public disclosures.

HLLI argues that the remaining disclosure requirement for 501(c)(3) organizations unconstitutionally burdens these organizations’ First Amendment rights. First, the requirement violates the doctrine of unconstitutional conditions. By requiring 501(c)(3) organizations to disclose the identity of their donors in order to secure the tax benefits available under that provision of the Tax Code, the disclosure requirement seeks to do indirectly what the government cannot do directly—namely, compel organizations and their members to forgo the right to associate anonymously in pursuit of their shared values. Second, the requirement must, but cannot, satisfy strict scrutiny because it burdens the fundamental right of free association. Requiring 501(c)(3) organizations to disclose the names and addresses of “substantial contributors” has a profound chilling effect on the exercise of First Amendment rights—particularly considering the repeated IRS data breaches and the government’s usage of taxpayer information to target perceived political enemies.