Many media pundits will reflexively view the recent Supreme Court decision to strike down the California rule mandating that nonprofit groups disclose their top donors as a victory for conservatives such as Charles Koch. While the Koch-associated group Americans for Prosperity (AFP) served as the lead plaintiff to challenge the law, this 6-3 ruling by the justices should also be viewed as a loss for Vice President Harris.
It was Harris, the former California attorney general, who first interpreted the state’s regulations on charities to mandate that nonprofit 501(c)(3) organizations report all gifts greater than $5,000 via the IRS Schedule B donor list.
...The Supreme Court’s ruling shouldn’t be associated with Harris just because she issued the original requirement on nonprofits. She also was the first to strictly enforce the law, and she persisted in defending it even after an initial court ruling against it.
After more than a decade — in which California deemed AFP to be in compliance with state law, despite the organization not filing the list of its major donors — Harris chose to reinterpret the law to mean that an IRS filing was not sufficient. ...The state won a 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling, but now has lost in the nation’s highest court.
...It’s worth mentioning what Harris had to overlook in order to persist in defending her interpretation of California’s charity law. She had to ignore a key precedent from the 1958 Supreme Court ruling that overturned Alabama’s Jim Crow requirement that the NAACP disclose donor information.....
The Law and Justice Room
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