CONCLUSION
For the reasons set forth above, we affirm the district
court’s dismissal of appellants’ Bivens actions and statutory
claims, but reverse the district court’s dismissal of the actions
for injunctive and declaratory relief and remand for further
proceedings consistent with this opinion.
****
United States Court of Appeals
FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA CIRCUIT
Argued April 14, 2016 Decided August 5, 2016
No. 14-5316
TRUE THE VOTE, INC.,
APPELLANT
v.
INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE, ET AL.,
APPELLEES
Appeal from the United States District Court
*****
Appellants appeal from judgments of the district court
dismissing some of their claims under Rule 12(b)(6) for failure
to state a claim for relief, and others under Rule 12(b)(1) for
lack of jurisdiction, by reason of mootness. See True the Vote,
Inc. v. IRS, 71 F. Supp. 3d 219 (D.D.C. 2014); Linchpins of
Liberty v. United States, 71 F. Supp. 3d 236 (D.D.C. 2014).
Each of the above-named appellants together with numerous coplaintiffs
in the Linchpins of Liberty litigation, filed applications
with the Internal Revenue Service for recognition of tax
exemption as charitable or educational organizations pursuant to
26 U.S.C. § 501(c)(3), (4). As to what happened thereafter, we
construe the complaints in the light most favorable to the
plaintiffs, see Missel v. DHSS, 760 F.3d 1, 4 (D.C. Cir. 2014),
although there is very little factual dispute between the parties
as to the conduct committed by the IRS.
Instead of processing these applications in the normal
course of IRS business, as would have been the case with other
taxpayers, the IRS selected out these applicants for more
rigorous review on the basis of their names, which were in each
instance indicative of a conservative or anti-Administration
orientation, as we will set out in more detail below, and as was
admitted by the Department of Treasury in the 2013 report of
the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration
(TIGTA).
The appellants before us, plaintiffs below, are applicants
who were afforded this unequal treatment. They brought the
present actions against the IRS and several of its individual
employees, seeking money damages by way of relief under
Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents of Fed. Bureau of
Narcotics, 403 U.S. 388 (1971), and equitable relief by way of
injunction and declaratory judgment. Additionally, the
complaints alleged that the IRS invaded the plaintiffs’ statutory
rights by violating 26 U.S.C. § 6103, by conducting
unauthorized inspection and/or disclosure of tax return
information from their applications and the other information
improperly obtained from them. Read the full decision here.
