Attempts to extract information out of the IRS usually run into a solid wall: Section 6103, the part of the tax code setting taxpayer privacy rules. It keeps Donald Trump’s tax returns—and everyone else’s—outside the scope of the federal Freedom of Information Act. The Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati just put a tiny but important dent in that wall, at least in the states covered by that appeals circuit. The IRS office that handles tax-exempt applications is in Cincinnati.
