A lot of people here mentioning scientology’s history of litigation and taking down the IRS and while that’s true, I also think it’s worth mentioning Waco. After the Waco seige the government lost a LOT of interest in going anywhere near cults. It’s just a giant mess that nobody wants to put their ass on the line to deal with. When you’re dealing with fanatics you never know what crazy shit is going to go down. As long as they aren’t hurting people outside of their cult itself, many politicians would sooner keep away from them and avoid having something backfire. That’s not to say that they’re right to think that way. It’s just the truth. Everything changed after Waco. Before Waco, the government was actually trying to do more about cults. The Jonestown massacre involved a sitting congressman getting gunned down. All the IRS shit with the scientologists went down before Waco too. IMO, Waco is the most important turning point to look at to understand why the government won’t touch cults anymore.