NOM Smacked Down By Federal Court Of Appeals In IRS Case

NOM has been trying to milk its case against the IRS for years, and yet, it keeps losing.

The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals today ruled that the IRS does not owe the National Organization For Marriage a penny in legal fees after the anti-marriage equality group lost its case.

Back in 2012, the Huffington Post published part of NOM’s 2008 tax return, a document that was not supposed to be released to the public. NOM made ridiculous allegations, attacking the Human Rights Campaign, and insisting the tax document was “stolen.”

“There is little question that one or more employees at the IRS stole our confidential tax return and leaked it to our political enemies, in violation of federal law,” NOM President Brian Brown wrongly claimed. “The only questions are who did it, and whether there was any knowledge or coordination between people in the White House, the Obama reelection campaign and the Human Rights Campaign. We and the American people deserve answers.”

Since this was around the time the IRS was being accused of curtailing tax exempt status for Tea Party groups, NOM milked the publication of their return for all it was worth, appearing on Fox News and even before a House Ways and Means Committee hearing on the IRS, where one Democratic Congressman rightly slammed them.

NOM subsequently sued the IRS in federal court, and lost. 

In the ruling against them, the judge used terms like, “NOM has failed to produce a shred of proof,” NOM’s argument “misses the mark,” is “unconvincing,” “is unpersuasive,” and “[t]o find that NOM could prevail from this scintilla of evidence … is not appropriate.”

NOM also tried to get nearly $700,000 in legal fees and other costs, and the court said no.

NOM appealed, and today was again told “no” in its request for attorneys fees. In its 16-page ruling, the court shot down all of NOM’s arguments.

By the way, how did NOM’s tax return document get released to the public? Someone asked for it, and an IRS clerk accidentally released it. No conspiracy, and per the court, a mistake is not guilt.

 

Image by National Organization For Marriage via Flickr and a CC license
Hat tip: Equality Case Files/Twitter