VSP Vision Care has added former Solicitor General and Judge Kenneth Starr to its legal team as it brings a closely watched case on nonprofit status to the Supreme Court.
VSP, which offers eye-care insurance as an employee benefit, was classified as a nonprofit until the Internal Revenue Service revoked that status in 2003. The California company claims that its charity programs funded by surplus revenues, including one that gives glasses to disadvantaged children, qualify it for nonprofit status. But the IRS, backed by a district court and the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, disagreed. In an opinion in January, the Ninth Circuit found that the charitable programs were not enough to convert VSP into a company “primarily engaged in promoting the common good and general welfare of the community.”
