(The Center Square) – A Columbus-based policy organization is getting help in its fight to keep its donors private.
The Buckeye Institute is calling the 250 organizations, business groups, trade organizations, law firms, states, and individuals who have filed amicus briefs in support of its position in its case unprecedented.
The institute is challenging a tax law that forces nonprofit charities, including The Buckeye Institute and other organizations, to disclose private information of donors to the federal government each year.
The case is now in the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
“This commonsense case is tremendously important to protecting Americans’ constitutional rights to free speech and association, and – particularly – preventing your name and address from being added to a government list,” Robert Alt, president and chief executive officer of The Buckeye Institute, said in a release. “The Buckeye Institute is grateful down to our freedom-loving bones for this unprecedented level of bipartisan support – ranging from PETA to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce – which reflects how concerned folks of all stripes are about the chilling effect that this un-American law has on the First Amendment.”
The Buckeye Institute originally filed the lawsuit in late 2022 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, Columbus Division.
The suit claims the law violates the First Amendment and the requirement restricts free speech.
According to a release in 2022 from The Buckeye Institute, the IRS has admitted it does not need the donor records and issued a rule in 2020 to stop collecting records from other tax-exempt organizations classified in different ways.
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The Texas-based Liberty Justice Center also filed a brief in support of The Buckeye Institute.
“The First Amendment protects the right to associate with who you want, and that includes donating money to organizations whose causes you support without being forced to disclose that information to the government or the public,” Reilly Stephens, senior counsel and director of amicus practice at the Liberty Justice Center, said in a release.