U.S. Catholic Conference (USCC), In re
| Decision Date | 04 October 1989 |
| Docket Number | No. 1486,D,1486 |
| Citation | 885 F.2d 1020 |
| Parties | -430, 58 USLW 2150, 89-2 USTC P 9576 In re UNITED STATES CATHOLIC CONFERENCE ("USCC") and National Conference of Catholic Bishops ("NCCB"), Appellants. ABORTION RIGHTS MOBILIZATION INC., Lawrence Lader, Margaret O. Strahl, M.D., Helen W. Edey, M.D., Ruth P. Smith, National Womens Health Network, Inc., Long Island National Organization For Women-Nassau, Inc., Rabbi Israel Margolies, Reverend Bea Blair, Rabbi Balfour Brickner, Reverend Robert Hare, Reverend Marvin G. Lutz, Womens Center for Reproductive Health, Jennie Rose Lifrieri, Eileen Walsh, Patricia Sullivan Luciano, Marcella Michalski, Chris Niebrzydowski, Judith A. Seibel, Karen Decrow and Susan Sherer, Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. James A. BAKER, III, Secretary of the Treasury, and Roscoe L. Egger, Jr., Commissioner of Internal Revenue, Defendants. ocket 86-6092. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit |
Oct. 4, 1989.
Kevin T. Baine (Edward Bennett Williams, Charles H. Wilson, Richard S. Hoffman, Kevin J. Hasson, Williams & Connolly, Mark E. Chopko, Gen. Counsel, Phillip H. Harris, Sol., Washington, D.C., of counsel), for appellant U.S. Catholic Conference.
Edward T. Ferguson, Asst. U.S. Atty., S.D.N.Y., for party-in-interest U.S.
Marshall Beil (Mark W. Budwig, Dawn E. Johnsen, Gene B. Sperling, New York City, of counsel), for plaintiffs-appellees Abortion Rights Mobilization, Inc., et al.
Steven R. Shapiro (John A. Powell, Helen Hershkoff, C. Edwin Baker, American Civil Liberties Union Foundation, Arthur N. Eisenberg, New York Civil Liberties Union, New York City, of counsel), filed a brief amicus curiae on behalf of The American Civil Liberties Union Foundation, New York Civil Liberties Union, National Organization for Women, Catholics for a Free Choice, and Nat. Emergency Civil Liberties Committee in support of respondents.
Before NEWMAN, KEARSE and CARDAMONE, Circuit Judges.
This appeal is before us for a second time. The Supreme Court has remanded the matter for a determination of whether the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (Carter, J.) had subject matter jurisdiction over the instant lawsuit that challenged the tax-exempt status of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States. The specific issue is whether the plaintiffs, who initiated this litigation to force the government to revoke the Catholic Church's tax-exempt status, satisfy the standing requirements of Article III. For the reasons discussed below, we hold that they do not.
Plaintiffs in this appeal are united in their commitment to a woman's right to obtain a legal abortion. This suit was instituted originally by 20 individuals and nine organizations. We assume familiarity with their specific identities as set forth in the district court's opinion. See Abortion Rights Mobilization, Inc. v. Regan, 544 F.Supp. 471, 474 (S.D.N.Y.1982). Some are no longer parties. Of the nine original organizational plaintiffs, for example, the district court held that five abortion clinics lacked standing and dismissed their complaints. Id. at 479 nn. 5 & 6. The district court did grant standing to an organization called the Women's Center for Reproductive Health, because it is run by a Presbyterian minister who is also a plaintiff. We discuss the Women's Center with the clergy plaintiffs. The three remaining organizations are Abortions Rights Mobilization Inc. (ARM), the National Women's Health Network Inc. (NWHN) and the Long Island National Organization For Women-Nassau, Inc. (Nassau-NOW). The former two are pro-choice organizations that are non-profit, tax-exempt organizations as defined in Sec. 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code (Code). 26 U.S.C. Sec. 501(c)(3). Nassau-NOW shares ARM's and NWHN's objectives, but is exempt from taxes under Sec. 501(c)(4), rather than (c)(3).
Twenty individual plaintiffs also bring this suit. They include Protestant ministers and Jewish rabbis. In contrast to the views of the Catholic Church, they believe that abortion is morally permissible under some circumstances. Many of the individual plaintiffs donate money to or serve as directors of the organizational plaintiffs. The individual plaintiffs vote and pay taxes.
The plaintiffs object to the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) enforcement--or, as they describe it, nonenforcement--of Sec. 501(c)(3)'s prohibition on lobbying and campaigning. Because this appeal arises from a motion to dismiss for want of standing, we must accept all of the plaintiffs' allegations as true and draw all inferences in their favor. See Warth v. Seldin, 422 U.S. 490, 501, 95 S.Ct. 2197, 2206, 45 L.Ed.2d 343 (1975).
Plaintiffs first allege that the Catholic Church is repeatedly violating Sec. 501(c)(3)'s prohibition on campaigning in order to promote the tenet that abortion is immoral and should therefore be made unlawful. For instance, plaintiffs point to the Church's "Pastoral Plan for Pro-Life Activities", which they claim is an organized effort to mobilize the entire Church in a "three-fold educational, pastoral and political effort to outlaw abortions in the United States." Complaint, p 22. The complaint also alleges that through its priests and officials, the Catholic Church has endorsed or supported pro-life political candidates and opposed pro-choice candidates by publishing articles in its bulletins, attacking or endorsing candidates from the pulpit, distributing partisan letters to parishioners, and urging its members to donate to and sign petitions of "right to life" committees and candidates. Complaint, p 26. Similarly, plaintiffs contend that the Church has contributed substantial sums of money to "right to life" and other political groups which have, directly or indirectly, supported the political candidacies for public office of persons favoring anti-abortion legislation. Complaint, p 27.
Plaintiffs' other major contention is that the IRS knows about the Catholic Church's alleged political activities and has ignored these activities rather than either revoking the Church's tax-exempt status under Sec. 501(c)(3), or not renewing the Church's annual exemption. They therefore assert that the government has "exempted the Roman Catholic Church from the strictures of the law and from the government's enforcement efforts," Complaint, p 33, and that the IRS treats the Catholic Church more favorably than those organizations that are pro-choice. Yet plaintiffs do not allege that the IRS has penalized them for violating the Code; in fact, they assert that they have not violated Sec. 501(c)(3) by electioneering, and do not intend to. Rather, they want the government to enforce the strictures of Sec. 501(c)(3) against the Catholic Church. Thus, plaintiffs do not complain about their own tax status--their challenge is directed solely against the Catholic Church's exemption.
The complaint and affidavits also spell out the asserted harms plaintiffs suffer as
a result of the Church's and the IRS' acts. Because the nature of the claimed harm is an integral component in standing analysis, it will be fully analyzed in the later discussion of standing.
In the amended complaint of January 30, 1981 the plaintiffs sued then-Secretary of the Treasury Donald T. Regan, then-Commissioner of Internal Revenue Roscoe L. Egger, Jr., the United States Catholic Conference, Inc., and the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (the latter two collectively the Catholic Church or the Church). The Catholic Church is composed of approximately 30,000 parishes, schools and other entities in the United States whose tax-exemption is granted collectively in a group ruling. The plaintiffs sought declarations that the defendants had violated both Sec. 501(c)(3) of the Code and the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. They also sought injunctive relief to compel the government to enforce the Code and Constitution by revoking the Church's group...
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