Mayer, Trump's Threat to Nonprofits

I recently had the opportunity to write a short essay for the European Verfassungsblog On Matters Constitutional website. It is titled Trump's Threat to Nonprofits: How the Government is Using Tax Law to Pressure Nonprofits and How Nonprofits Can Respond. Here is the opening paragraph:

The administration of President Trump is threatening nonprofits with the loss of tax-exempt status in an attempt to force them to conform their activities to policies favored by that administration. The threats are based on shaky legal grounds, and nonprofits have both constitutional and statutory bases for countering them. Nevertheless, these threats are significant, especially when combined with the administration’s efforts to cut government funding for many programs operated by nonprofits. And at the same time, the U.S. Congress is considering reducing the benefits of tax-exempt status in many ways, primarily to help pay for tax cuts benefitting individuals and corporations.

Lloyd Mayer