Long v. IRS (II)

Public Citizen Litigation Group is representing researcher Susan Long in ongoing efforts to enforce a court order requiring the IRS to make statistical data available to her upon request. The order was issued in 1976 by the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington. After many years of providing data to Ms. Long upon request, the IRS in 2004 began refusing to make its statistical information available to Ms. Long.

In 2006, Ms. Long filed a motion asking the court to enforce the 1976 order by requiring the IRS to make certain statistical tables available to her. The court granted the motion and awarded Ms. Long attorneys’ fees. The IRS filed an appeal, but later withdrew it. While the appeal was pending, the IRS asked for a stay of the district court’s order, which the district court denied.

Thereafter, the IRS continued to violate the district court’s orders by delaying production of data, providing incomplete data, improperly redacting the data, and refusing to make data available electronically. The IRS also refused to comply with the court’s specific instruction that if it wished to redact data, it seek the court’s permission before doing so.

In February 2008, Ms. Long filed a new motion to enforce the court’s orders and to require the IRS to provide complete, unredacted, electronic copies of data subject to the court’s orders. Finding that the IRS had violated its orders, the court granted Ms. Long’s motion on June 13, 2008.