Lawsuits Against IRS Piling Up

In addition to Congressional probe

As the Internal Revenue Service scrambles to turn over documents to congressional staff probing its mishandling of applications for tax-exempt status, the agency is also busy going to court.

Tax Analysts, a nonprofit trade publisher based in Falls Church, Va., this month filed suit against the IRS seeking to accelerate the agency's response to its May Freedom of Information Act request for all materials used since 2009 to train IRS personnel in the IRS exempt organizations office in Cincinnati, the unit at the center of the controversy over political targeting of nonprofits.

Separately, the Freedom from Religion Foundation, a Madison, Wis.-based watchdog for enforcing separation of church and state, won a legal victory Aug. 20 when a U.S. district judge tossed out an IRS motion to dismiss its suit seeking to require the tax agency's exempt organizations division to step up enforcement of rules against church politicking.