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June 2, 2009, 12:22 PM ET
Liberty U. Group Urges IRS to Investigate Americans United
On behalf of Liberty University, Liberty Counsel — a nonprofit litigation, education, and policy organization — is asking the Internal Revenue Service to investigate Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a civil-liberties watchdog group.
Last week, Americans United for Separation of Church and State asked the IRS to investigate Liberty University after the university dropped its official recognition of a student Democratic Party Club. Liberty University, in Lynchburg, Va., was founded by the late Rev. Jerry Falwell. Mr. Falwell’s son, Jerry Falwell Jr., is the university’s chancellor.
“AU has engaged in a consistent pattern of filing complaints against conservative churches and nonprofit organizations,” Liberty Counsel said in a statement. “Its statements are designed to intimidate, silence, and harm those with whom it disagrees.”
Liberty Counsel added: “AU’s actions violate the same tax-exempt laws it pretends to uphold and the group has become merely a facade for a liberal agenda and the Democratic Party. This group has crossed the line one too many times. The IRS needs to put a stop to AU’s partisan intimidation tactics.”
Americans United for Separation of Church and State said in a press release that the Liberty Counsel complaint was “groundless and should go nowhere.”
The Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United, said that “Falwell knows full well that Americans United is rigorously nonpartisan. He’s feeling the heat for a bad decision and trying to shift the focus to Americans United. This is a desperate diversionary tactic and it will fail. Instead of launching baseless attacks against Americans United, Falwell needs to get his own house in order.”
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