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The public comment and review process isn't optional; it's the law.

In essence, that's what U.S. District Judge Brian Morris said in throwing out an Internal Revenue Service rule that the Trump administration unilaterally imposed. That new rule told tax-exempt 501(c)4 social welfare organizations that they no longer had to report the names of their large donors to the IRS with their annual 990 reports. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin apparently saw no use for this information, even though many of these groups spend up to half of their revenue trying to influence elections and government policy.

Montana Gov. Steve Bullock objected and sued to overturn the rule. He was joined by New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal. They argued that because their states (and others) rely on IRS data to determine whether tax exempt organizations are complying with state laws, the IRS rule adversely affects the states. New Jersey was contemplating the costs of trying to collect this information itself.

For a century, IRS policy has been to share data with state revenue authorities. To be clear, the IRS wan't releasing donor lists to the public, but it was providing that information to states. Thus, states didn't have to duplicate efforts and they could more efficiently review information from entities that operate in multiple states.