Kara Backus (J.D. 2008, USC) has published Note, All Saints Church and the Argument for a Goal-Driven Application of IRS Rules for Tax-Exempt Organizations, 17 S. Cal. Interdisc. L.J. 301 (2008).  Here is the Conclusion:

From any perspective, it will be difficult to view the story of All Saints Church as a success. If nothing else, it stands for today’s unresolved debate over whether the drafting and enforcement of tax rules can better enable us to fulfill our social, religious, and legal objectives. The growing media attention around IRS investigations of political activity, coupled with the rise in stature of the nonprofit sector and its tendency to apply its money and power to the social and political dialogue, are clear signposts that the IRS must adapt its currents systems in ways that better serve the public. In order to do that well, the IRS will have to review the six policy goals that convey our interest in churches and other nonprofits and our contention that they add value to society.

The policy goals do not require that Congress amend the Code language for § 501(c)(3) organizations, or put into place a bright line rule. Rather, the IRS must hone its processes and its communication. First, the IRS should evaluate its referral system and attempt to balance church and non-church investigations. It must better police both politically-motivated harassment of exempt organizations and the tendency of organizations to assume that the rules will never catch up with them. Second, the IRS should build on recent successes in the area of educating exempt organizations as to their rights and responsibilities by creating and sharing internal timelines and better articulating them during election cycles. Third and finally, the IRS must take steps to consider how to create a public record of investigative results and investigative reasoning while maintaining the integrity of the privacy statute. This will allow organizations to better understand their limits, and will make the IRS accountable for creating clear and consistent standards and enforcing those standards when necessary.