ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of the book. The book discusses the advantages of nonprofit status and the historical divergence of profit and nonprofit gatekeeping. It explains how judges built a doctrinal platform for themselves that let them shape the nonprofit sector to reinforce the values of social consensus and to reflect dominant political and social conventions. The book examines the corrosion of the traditional structure of supervision after World War II. It also discusses the transition to the new incorporation regime, as well as the difficulty that judges and bureaucrats had in accepting it. The chapter traces the impact of the reconception on the growth of the nonprofit sector and on the effectiveness of its supervision. It considers ways in which overthrowing the discretionary conception signaled an important triumph for the freedom of expression and for American expressive pluralism.
