At a recent hearing, numerous attorneys and First Amendment scholars provided testimony on the IRS’s proposed change to eliminate the requirement that certain exempt organizations disclose the names and addresses of contributors. Former Federal Election Commission Commissioner Hans A. von Spakovsky, of the Heritage Foundation, highlighted the burden put on nonprofits as well as the First Amendment and privacy implications of disclosure in his testimony:

A couple weeks ago the IRS held a hearing on the “Reporting Requirements of Exempt Organizations.”  This hearing is especially timely in light of the rise of the violent Bernie Bros which was an issue in last night’s Democrat debate.  Retribution against supporters of issue groups on the opposite side of the spectrum is on the rise.  As Allen Dickerson of the Institute for Free Speech wrote in their official comments:

A 2017 poll by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that “more than half of Americans say the political polarization of the nation is extremely or very threatening, and another 34 percent say it is moderately threatening” to the American way of life.

Yesterday, the Senate voted to overturn new IRS rules which are meant to protect certain tax-exempt organizations that do not have 501(c)(3) status from the requirement to report the names and addresses of their contributors who donate more than $5,000 in a given year.