IRS Investigates NAACP Over Election-Related Activities

The Internal Revenue Service is investigating whether the NAACP, the nation's oldest and largest civil-rights organization, has become illegally involved in the presidential election and should have its tax exemption revoked. The NAACP -- also known as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People -- denied any wrongdoing.

In an October 8 letter to the NAACP that was released by the civil-rights charity, the IRS told the group that it was reviewing "whether or not your organization has intervened in a political campaign" in a July speech by NAACP chairman Julian Bond at the organization's convention in Philadelphia. In the speech, the IRS wrote, Mr. Bond "condemned the administration policies of George W. Bush on education, the economy and the war in Iraq." The tax agency added that charities are prohibited by federal law from intervening on behalf of, or in opposition to, any candidate for public office.

In its letter, the IRS asked the NAACP to provide details about its operations, including the names and identities of board members, the cost of the convention, who authorized Mr. Bond's speech, and the minutes of board meetings in which a decision was made to distribute copies of the speech, which was posted on the charity's Web site.

NAACP officials said the organization has not violated any laws. "It is regrettable that the IRS would seek to silence the voice of the nation's oldest and largest civil rights organization for having done nothing wrong," NAACP president Kweisi Mfume said in a telephone conference call.

If the NAACP deserves to be audited for criticizing the Bush administration," said Mr. Bond in the conference call, "I think about half the people in this country would find their income taxes under audit."

The NAACP said the timing of the IRS letter, dated less than a month before Election Day, was "suspicious" and suggested an attempt to stifle the organization's efforts to get out the vote. If so, the attempt will fail, Mr. Mfume said. "I believe what you're going to see, particularly in the black and Latino community, is one of the largest voter turnouts ever," Mr. Mfume said.

Internal Revenue Commissioner Mark Everson said in a statement that he could not comment on the NAACP case. But, he said, the IRS follows strict procedures in selecting charities for audit. "Any suggestion that the IRS has tilted its audit activities for political purposes is repugnant and groundless," Mr. Everson said.

In Mr. Bond's speech, a review of civil rights history, Mr. Bond condemned both the Republican and Democratic parties. "Where one party is shameless, the other party cannot afford to be spineless," he said. But Mr. Bond also said that the "differences between the candidates this year are neither incremental nor inconsequential," and he urged NAACP chapters to redouble their efforts to get voters to the polls.

Ralph G. Neas, president of People for the American Way, an advocacy group, said that the IRS is out of line. "This investigation is a brazen attempt by the Bush administration to intimidate dissenters into silence," Mr. Neas said.

Frances Hill, a law professor at the University of Miami and an expert on the political rights of tax-exempt organizations, said she was "perplexed and disturbed" by the IRS letter. She said it lacked the substance and detail she has seen in the IRS's communications to other charities on electioneering.

By appearing to selectively choose portions of a single speech at an organization's convention for review, the IRS is creating a new standard that could potentially cause hundreds of charities of all political stripesĘ to lose tax-exempt status, Ms. Hill said. For the IRS, which has traditionally focused on overt electioneering such as paid newspaper ads, to begin parsing a speech by a public figure is disquieting, she said. "I regard this as having a chilling impact on First Amendment speech," she said.

In 1995, the IRS revoked the tax-exempt status of Branch Ministries -- operating as the Church at Pierce Creek -- in Binghampton, N.Y., for running newspaper advertisements opposing Bill Clinton for president in 1992.

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