[ONLINE.WSJ] So why was the IRS involved at all, and why does it matter? The answer is that the IRS scandal is part of a long-term assault on First Amendment rights. Thanks to "campaign finance reform," citizen groups must navigate a maze of government paperwork and apply to the IRS for a tax license to speak on politics. People literally need a lawyer to figure it out, and not just any lawyer, but one from the highly compensated and mostly Washington, D.C.-based bar practicing "political law."

The standard used by the IRS to decide who qualifies for 501(c)(4) tax status is an arbitrary "facts and circumstances" test that few people understand. If more than 50% of an organization's activities might support or oppose candidates under the vague "facts and circumstances" test, then the group is placed in the same tax status--Section 527--as candidate committees, political parties and political-action committees.

Social-welfare groups under Section 501(c)(4) must disclose the campaign activity they undertake, but they do not have to publicly disclose information about their donors and members to either the IRS or the Federal Election Commission. This is the result of 70 years of Supreme Court decisions protecting the privacy right of Americans to associate in groups without disclosing their affiliations to the government.

Democrats want the IRS to require the conservative groups to register as political committees under Section 527. This would increase their regulatory burden by requiring them to file quarterly or monthly reports detailing their receipts and expenditures. It would also force them to reveal personal information about their supporters and members, enabling government retaliation and laying the groundwork for unofficial harassment of those supporters. Such harassment has become a routine tactic of the political left, especially since it was successfully used to target financial supporters of California's Proposition 8--which banned same-sex marriage in the state--to get them fired from jobs, for instance.

IRS apologists argue that Section 501(c)(4) requires organizations to operate "exclusively for the promotion of social welfare," but Section 501(c)(4) has never been interpreted to prohibit all political activity.

This explains why left-wing groups such as MoveOn.org, People for the American Way, Naral Pro-Choice America, and the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence have operated for years under 501(c)(4) status. They spend millions to support liberal candidates and agendas, with nary a protest from Democrats now raging against the tea parties and other conservatives. By delaying approval for conservative groups, the IRS left them in legal limbo, with uncertain liabilities, obligations and ability to act--exactly what the Obama administration wanted.

But this raises another question: Why aren't political education and discussion a form of promoting "social welfare"? What kind of democracy claims that political participation is not in the interest of "social welfare?"

Rep. Becerra argues that 501(c)(4) status should be reserved for "something good, not groups that are in business to do politics." That's a remarkable statement from a man who has spent the past 22 years in elective office. Yet this is also the logic of the campaign finance "reform" movement that has wielded so much political influence over the last 40 years. Its drumbeat is that participating in public affairs is bad.