The Nationalist Movement v. Commissioner

The Nationalist Movement (TNM) (plaintiff) was incorporated in Mississippi as a nonprofit corporation. TNM advocated for social, political, and economic change in the United States to reflect its beliefs, which included that the American ideal was to be White and Christian and to speak English. Although TNM engaged in multiple activities, one of its primary activities was publishing a newsletter distributed primarily to people in their early twenties. This newsletter frequently advocated positions without providing factual support. For example, the newsletter argued that no one with a beard or an “odd or foreign” name should be allowed to be a United States Supreme Court justice, but it provided no facts to support this position. The newsletter also contended that citizenship should be denied to “[b]oat people, wetbacks, and aliens who are incompatible with American nationality and character,” but it again gave no supporting explanation. The newsletter also frequently used inflammatory devices such as calling people it disliked perverts, invaders, or looters, while calling TNM’s supporters patriots and martyrs. Finally, the newspaper commonly referred to events that had occurred decades earlier without providing any factual explanation. In 1987, TNM applied for federal tax-exempt status under § 501(c)(3), claiming it was organized and operated exclusively for charitable and educational purposes. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) (defendant) rejected the application. TNM filed a petition in the Tax Court seeking a determination that it qualified as tax exempt. Among other arguments, TNM claimed that the IRS’s definition of an educational purpose violated the First Amendment because it was unconstitutionally vague.