www.LC.org

Washington, DC – Today Liberty Counsel filed a complaint with the IRS, asking the agency to investigate the tax-exempt status of Americans United for Separation of Church and State (“AU”). The complaint follows last week’s letter by AU against Liberty University. According to Jerry Falwell Jr., Chancellor and President of Liberty University, “When Americans United filed their frivolous complaint against Liberty University, we decided we had had enough of their malicious threats. We will not be intimated by this organization.”

AU is not concerned about truth. It is only concerned with getting its name in the media. Its statements are designed to intimidate, silence, and harm those with whom it disagrees. AU’s activity is both reckless and partisan. It is reckless because AU never investigates the accuracy of its alleged complaints. AU’s pattern of reckless disregard for the truth, coupled with its malicious intent to injure those with whom it disagrees, is patently obvious. While the IRS considers such complaints confidential and will not release information to the public pending such investigations, AU is only interested in getting its name in the media.

AU’s activity is politically partisan. AU has engaged in a consistent pattern of filing complaints against conservative churches and nonprofit organizations. Despite its knowledge of partisan activity carried on by liberal nonprofit organizations, AU remains silent. AU has become an arm of the Democratic Party. Churches or nonprofit organizations having anything to do with conservative causes or candidates are targets of AU. But churches or nonprofit organizations supporting liberal causes or Democratic policies or candidates are ignored by AU. Barry Lynn, the Executive Director of AU, sat in Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s church where then-presidential candidate Barack Obama spoke and politicked from the pulpit in 2008, and Lynn said nothing. Lynn is a member of the same United Church of Christ denomination.

Mathew D. Staver, Founder of Liberty Counsel and Dean of Liberty University School of Law, commented: “Americans United for Separation of Church and State wages its battle with smoke and mirrors, intimidation, and malicious threats. Its actions violate the same tax-exempt laws it pretends to uphold. Americans United is merely a façade for a liberal agenda and the Democratic Party. Americans United has become an arm of the Democratic Party. This group has never won an IRS complaint. It is a politically partisan organization, and the IRS ought to take a close look at its tax-exempt status. This group has crossed the line one too many times. We have asked the IRS to put a stop to these baseless threats.”