Time for Legal Fees from Lawbreaking Government

Following the IRS scandal targeting Tea Party and conservative organizations for special “scrutiny,” Republican Congressman Michael Turner introduced legislation to increase penalties against government employees who violate laws governing issuance of tax-exempt status.

The penalties need to include compensation for the damages to these organizations, including attorney’s fees for the extra legal work caused by IRS lawbreaking.

And, it is lawbreaking when government bureaucrats violate the very laws they are charged with enforcing.  It is an everyday occurrence at all levels of government — federal, state and local.   Bureaucrats have become cocky.  Law-flaunting bureaucrats have even said “So sue us” when I’ve pointed out their lawbreaking in my many dealings with them.

Government lawbreaking, you see, is treated differently than private sector lawbreaking.  Government protects its lawbreaking — because it can.

The IRS is this week’s widely publicized example of the biggest lawbreaker in America — government.  And, there’s no close second place.  If Republicans were serious about, and committed to, the principles of the rule of law and limited government, they’d ensure that victims of government lawbreaking at the IRS and beyond are entitled to full remedies, including legal fees.