Tea Party Member’s Suit Against IRS Employees Allowed to Proceed

Posted on January 22, 2015

In recent case, Selim Zherka filed a lawsuit against employees of the IRS alleging that they hindered his application for tax exempt status and initiated an investigation against him in order to penalize members of the Tea Party for their political activities.

Mr. Zherka alleged that the IRS gave his application for tax exempt status an inordinately high level of scrutiny.

Worse yet, Mr. Zherka alleged that the FBI issued 75 subpoenas to his business associates and threatened them with criminal prosecution if they did not provide information that incriminated Mr. Zherka. As a result, Mr. Zherka lost business, his reputation was damaged and he sustained emotional injuries.

The government filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit brought by Mr. Zherka. However, the Court denied the government’s motion, stating that Mr. Zherka’s allegations are disturbing and sufficiently shocking and allowed his claim to go forward. The Courts denied the government’s motion to dismiss.

Do you think that the government can be sued if it acts improperly? We think that the answer is a resounding yes.