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1
HOUSE RESOLUTION

 
2    WHEREAS, Recent allegations against the conduct of the
3United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and its personnel
4have led to the resignation of former acting IRS commissioner
5Steven T. Miller; and
 
6    WHEREAS, In a hearing before the U.S. House Committee on
7Investigations, IRS divisional chief Lois Lerner pleaded her
8rights under the Fifth Amendment, an article of the Bill of
9Rights; and
 
10    WHEREAS, The last time members of the Illinois House of
11Representatives visited the National Archives, there were 10
12amendments in the Bill of Rights, including the right to
13peaceably petition the government for a redress of their
14grievances (First Amendment) and the right to privacy against
15unreasonable search actions by law enforcement (Fourth
16Amendment); and
 
17    WHEREAS, Director Lerner's IRS division, the Exempt
18Organizations Unit, was responsible for the controversial
19"Target: Tea Party" initiative under which nonprofit
20organizations, seeking certification of their 501(c) rights,
21were subjected to onerous administrative delays and intrusive
22questioning by IRS bureaucrats; and
 

 

 

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1    WHEREAS, Many Illinoisans will agree that the alleged
2conduct of the IRS, in singling out groups with grievances and
3subjecting them to privacy-violating bureaucratic search
4actions, appears to constitute not only violations of federal
5law, but also an outrageous violation of the spirit of the Bill
6of Rights; therefore, be it
 
7    RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE
8NINETY-EIGHTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that
9we call upon the Unites States House of Representatives and the
10United States Senate to fully investigate the growing
11allegations against the Internal Revenue Services, including
12(but not limited to) the IRS's Exempt Organizations Unit within
13the IRS; and be it further
 
14    RESOLVED, We determine that should these congressional
15investigations continue to develop evidence of unlawful
16conduct by persons holding executive responsibilities within
17offices charged with immense power over the lives of
18private-sector Americans, that this investigatory work should
19be continued by the appointment of a special prosecutor within,
20but fully independent of, the United States Department of
21Justice, charged with continuing this case or cases and seeing
22that justice be done; and be it further
 

 

 

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1    RESOLVED, We reaffirm our commitment, which we sealed with
2an oath when we began our service in the 98th Illinois General
3Assembly, to the entire U.S. Bill of Rights and the
4Constitution of the United States; and be it further
 
5    RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be
6presented to the President of the United States, the Attorney
7General of the United States, the Secretary of the Treasury of
8the United States, the acting commissioner of the United States
9Internal Revenue Service, the Speaker of the United States
10House of Representatives, the Senate Majority Leader of the
11United States Senate, Illinois Senators Richard J. Durbin and
12Mark Kirk, and to members of the Illinois delegation to the
13United States House of Representatives.