CANCELLED: The Norman A. Sugarman Tax Lecture presents: Emergent Threats to the Independent Sector with Roger Colinvaux

The United States has long enjoyed a vibrant, pluralistic, and independent nonprofit sector. Sector independence is fostered by the Constitution, state nonprofit law, and federal tax law. Since the turn of the century, however, political scandal, tax law changes, and regulatory inertia have sapped sector strength. Further, the new Administration appears ready to leverage federal executive power in new ways against many nonprofit organization policies and programs. Legislative change also appears likely to target nonprofits in various ways. The lecture will survey existing and new threats to nonprofit pluralism and autonomy and weigh possible responses to the shifting legal and political landscape.

Bio:
Roger Colinvaux is a Professor of Law at the Columbus School of Law, The Catholic
University of America, where he teaches courses in Federal Income Taxation, Nonprofit Organizations, Property, and Legislation. From 2001-2008 he was Legislation Counsel at the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation in the U.S. Congress with responsibility for tax legislation relating to nonprofit organizations, including charitable giving and reform legislation in the Pension Protection Act of 2006. He currently is visiting at The George Washington University Law School.

Professor Colinvaux writes about the many ways the law shapes the nonprofit sector,
with a focus on charitable giving, tax exemption, nonprofit advocacy, and most recently civil rights. A forthcoming work in the Yale Law Journal considers the legality of charitable forms of affirmative action; another in the University of Illinois Law Review assesses the constitutionality of information reporting rules. His work has been cited by think tanks, policymakers, courts, and media outlets, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, ProPublica, and the Chronicle of Philanthropy. Professor Colinvaux has testified before the Senate Finance Committee and the House Ways and Means Committee, authored amicus briefs in federal appellate litigation, and been an expert witness in federal and state matters involving nonprofits. He was a founding member of the Initiative to Accelerate Charitable Giving and has served as an advisor to the Urban Institute, the National Center on Philanthropy and the Law at NYU, and the Independent Sector, as well as chairing committees for the American Association of Law Schools and the D.C. Bar.

In 2024, he was awarded the Outstanding Academic Award by the Nonprofit Organizations Committee of the Business Law Section of the ABA. Prior to his Joint Committee service, he was an associate at the law firm of Arnold and Porter, and law clerk for Justice Theodore R. Boehm on the Indiana Supreme Court. Professor Colinvaux received his J.D. from the Indiana University Maurer School of Law and an M.Litt in Politics from Oxford University.

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