California lawmakers threaten to strip Scouts of tax exemption
Extortion (also called shakedown, outwresting, and exaction) is acriminal offence of unlawfully obtaining money, property, or services from a person, entity, or institution, through coercion. Refraining from doing harm is sometimes euphemistically called protection. Extortion is commonly practiced by organized crime groups. The actual obtainment of money or property is not required to commit the offense. Making a threat of violencewhich refers to a requirement of a payment of money or property to halt future violence is sufficient to commit the offense. Exaction refers not only to extortion or the unlawful demanding and obtaining of something through force,[1] but additionally, in its formal definition, means the infliction of something such as pain and suffering or making somebody endure something unpleasant.[2]
In common usage, blackmail is a crime involving unjustified threats to make a gain or cause loss to another unless a demand is met. It is the name of a statutory offence in the United States, England and Wales, Northern Ireland, and Victoria, and has been used as a convenient way of referring to other offences, but was not a term of art in English law before 1968. It originally denoted a payment made by English people residing along the border of Scotland to influential Scottish chieftains in exchange for protection from thieves and marauders. Blackmail may also be considered a form of extortion.[1] Although the two are generally synonymous, extortion is the taking of personal property by threat of future harm
SACRAMENTO — Some California lawmakers seeking to pressure the Boy Scouts of America to abandon its ban on openly gay members are taking a novel approach: They are threatening to strip the organization of its state tax exemption.
The proposal, which cleared a legislative hurdle Wednesday, once again puts California at the center of a national debate on gay rights, and it could put the state on a collision course with the IRS if passed. The legislation would revoke the exemption from state taxes for any nonprofit that excludes members by sexual orientation, gender identity or religious affiliation.
Supporters acknowledge that the bill is directed at the Boy Scouts.
The measure passed the committee with only Democrats in favor. It requires two-thirds support in the full Legislature to pass.
The Boy Scouts of America has been under pressure for years from advocates for lesbians, gays and bisexual and transgender Americans to change its policy, but leaders of the nonprofit group have voted twice since 2010 to maintain it despite boycotts by corporate donors and condemnation by politicians and celebrities.
Gay rights groups such as Equality California see the threat to tax benefits as a way to gain leverage over the organization.
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