Week in Review: Innocent spouse’s $270K IRS nightmare

What happens when your American Dream turns into an IRS nightmare?

“It’s made my life completely miserable,” says Hungarian immigrant Emoke Fidele, who is being harassed by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for $271,000 in back taxes that she doesn’t actually owe.

Emoke is a proud American citizen, obeys the law, and has paid taxes on the modest income she earns as a caregiver to seniors. But under an unjust IRS rule, she’s liable for her ex-husband’s unpaid taxes unless she can prove her innocence to the government…by jumping through endless bureaucratic hoops.

As Goldwater Communications Director Mike Brownfield writes in the Washington Times: “Congress should act today to rein in the IRS—or repeal this irrational rule—and ensure that innocent Americans aren’t forced to pay their spouses’ tax bills.”

Read more here.

Next Stop: Minnesota Supreme Court

Goldwater Institute attorneys defended constitutional rights this week in the Minnesota Supreme Court—the third state high court we’ve argued before in 2024 alone.

The case involves vulnerable Native American children who are denied the protections that children of other races enjoy due to the federal Indian Child Welfare Act’s raced-based discrimination. Indeed, the Goldwater Institute has done more work than any other organization in the country to defend Native kids from ICWA’s unjust burdens.

Already this year, Goldwater has successfully fought public-sector labor union malfeasance at the Arizona and Texas Supreme Courts. Wherever the fight takes us, we’ll defend constitutional liberties from those who seek to take them away.

Read more here. 

How Government Keeps Citizens Trapped 

Regulation always comes at a cost to someone. Take occupational licenses—government permission slips to work in fields ranging from floristry to hairdressing.

“If you’re struggling to make money, and then the barrier to try to get a better job that could potentially pay more is an occupational license and you can’t afford that license, that keeps you trapped,” Goldwater Director of Government Affairs Jenna Bentley tells the conservative Spanish-language outlet Voz Media.

And when a worker moves to a new state, they often must go through the entire process again. That’s why Goldwater’s universal recognition reform, which we have passed in more than half the states in the country, allows skilled workers to use their out-of-state experience to quickly obtain a license to work in their new state. We’re freeing workers to work—and pursue their American Dream.

Watch the interview here.