POLITICS: IRS Weaponizes Power Against Conservative Nonprofit: Shocking Charges – USSA News

Imagine this: you found a nonprofit to fight back against government overreach—like Obamacare and bloated budgets—only to spend almost a decade defending yourself against the very government you’re criticizing. Sound familiar? It should. This isn’t a cautionary tale from some far-off despotic nation. This is the United States of America in 2025, where conservative voices remain targeted by the IRS.

Freedom Path, a Texas nonprofit established specifically to advocate for the repeal of Obamacare and push for a balanced budget amendment, found itself ensnared in the IRS’s bureaucratic web from the moment it applied for tax-exempt status back in 2011. After languishing in limbo for nearly two years, the agency suddenly demanded an invasive disclosure of Freedom Path’s donor list. Lex Politica CEO Chris Gober, representing Freedom Path, described the request bluntly: “It was just a very, very odd request. And we basically told them to pound sand.”

Yet, the IRS didn’t relent. Instead, they doubled down, using their vague and subjective “Facts and Circumstances” test to claim Freedom Path was too political to qualify as a social welfare organization. This broad and ambiguous test is a holdover from an ugly chapter in recent history—the Lois Lerner scandal, where conservative groups with names like “Tea Party” and “Patriots” faced unprecedented scrutiny.

In 2013, Lois Lerner herself had to publicly apologize for the IRS’s targeting of conservative organizations. Yet here we are, more than a decade later, and nothing has changed. Gober emphasized this troubling reality, stating plainly: “People don’t realize that the IRS is still using the exact same tests and the mechanisms that they used to target conservatives back in 2010 and 2011. Those are still on the books.”

We applied for tax-exempt status back in 2011, he told Fox News Digital. Largely nothing happened for a long time. And then, all of a sudden, about a year and a half later, we got a request from the IRS to say, We need more information, and we need you to disclose your donors to us. And it was just a very, very odd request. And we basically told them to pound sand. It wasn’t too long afterward that the Lois Lerner scandal came to life.

This isn’t just bureaucratic incompetence; it’s weaponized government power aimed squarely at conservative voices. The IRS’s ambiguity forced Freedom Path to shelve a television ad supporting the repeal of Obamacare simply out of fear—a chilling, textbook example of government-induced self-censorship. As Gober put it, “It’s so open-ended, broad, and subjective that anybody, depending on what you want the result to be, you can get to that result using this test.”

The Supreme Court has already condemned similar tests as unconstitutional, most notably in the landmark Citizens United ruling. Yet the IRS persists, claiming those decisions somehow don’t apply to them. Bureaucrats continue to wield unchecked power over political speech, thumbing their noses at the Constitution and our fundamental rights.

But make no mistake: this isn’t merely Freedom Path’s battle. This is about whether unelected bureaucrats can silence political speech they dislike. The implications are devastatingly clear: “Every conservative group in America should be paying attention,” warns Gober.

President Trump promised an America First agenda—border security, manufacturing revival, education reform, trade fairness, and an end to endless wars. But how can our nation flourish if conservative voices are systematically silenced by bureaucratic intimidation?

This lawsuit isn’t just another legal skirmish—it’s a fight for the heart and soul of American democracy. Freedom Path’s battle against the IRS is a call to action for every patriotic American who cherishes liberty, free speech, and limited government. We must stand united, resolute, and unapologetic in demanding accountability from an IRS that thinks itself above the law.

The IRS declines to comment on pending litigation, perhaps hoping the issue quietly disappears. But rest assured: conservatives across the country are watching. This time, we won’t let unelected bureaucrats rewrite the rules of freedom.