IRS Settles Class Action Lawsuit With 400-Plus Tea Party Groups

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Mark Meckler, president of Citizens for Self-Governance and co-founder of Convention of States Project, tells The Rich Zeoli Show on Talk Radio 1210 WPHT, "about four years ago the Citizens for Self-Governance, was frustrated that all these Tea Party Groups were targeted by the IRS for discrimination and harassment and we stepped up and agreed to fund the class action because no one else was doing it."

The IRS is accused of targeting based on "the political view-point" of conservative groups with, as Meckler puts it, "anyone that was conservative, or people who had Tea Party, Liberty or Patriot in the name of their group."

All of these groups were put on a "Be on the lookout list," which allowed IRS agents to screen out these applications, delay them harass people with unconstitutional questions about their donors and religious beliefs.

This is the only class action lawsuit that made it this far.

"Our settlement was for $3.5 million, so at least the plaintiffs will get something out of this," said Meckler.

There were a couple of other suits filed recently against the IRS. The members of that lawsuit, handled by the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ ), opted out of the class action lawsuit and in their settlement "they got nothing."

Meckler concluded, "This is not a Republican or Democrat thing, no administration should be able to do this, and I don't only fear Democratic administrations doing this, I fear Republican administrations doing this as well."