The Tea Party lawsuit against IRS moves forward over a motion to dismiss, but the judge dismissed claims to hold individual IRS officials personally liable for intentional violations.  For America’s first 100 years, federal officials could be sued personally, which helped prevent abuses by bureaucrats.  Bureaucrats anywhere without consequences for intentionally illegal acts will continue to violate the law, of course.  AP reports:

[Attorney for Tea Party groups] Greim said he was planning on appealing a portion of Dlott's ruling that won't allow the tea party groups to seek damages from individual IRS employees, though those employees are still named defendants.

"When an officer of the federal government does something that's unconstitutional and they do it with the right level of intent — and we think the evidence here establishes that these individuals did — we think they should be held to answer for their conduct," Greim said.

Previously reported at SCOTUSblog:

Each of the lawsuits claims violations of constitutional rights, and seek rulings not only that the IRS had acted illegally in its examination of “tea party” and “patriot” organizations, but also seek money damages from several key officials allegedly involved in the extra scrutiny — including intrusive questioning — of the conservative groups.