Churches can endorse political candidates without tax-exempt risk

The IRS said in a new federal court filing that churches can endorse political candidates to their congregations without risking the loss of their tax-exempt status.

The move upends a 70-year-old interpretation of the U.S. tax code, whose Johnson Amendment has barred certain non-profit groups, including churches, from endorsing political candidates without putting their tax-exempt status in jeopardy.

President Donald Trump has long called for Johnson Amendment to be repealed.

“Communications from a house of worship to its congregation in connection with religious services through its usual channels of communication on matters of faith do not run afoul of the Johnson Amendment as properly interpreted,” the IRS said in the joint filing Monday with the National Religious Broadcasters group in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.

“When a house of worship in good faith speaks to its congregation, through its customary channels of communication on matters of faith in connection with religious services, concerning electoral politics viewed through the lens of religious faith, it neither ‘participate[s]” nor ‘intervene[s]’ in a ‘political campaign,’ within the ordinary meaning of those words,” the filing said.

The filing was part of a joint motion by the IRS, the National Religious Broadcasters, and two Texas churches, Sand Springs Church in Athens, and First Baptist Church Waksom, located in Waksom, to settle a lawsuit through a consent judgment.

Those churches and the NRB sued the IRS last year, alleging that the Johnson Amendment violated their First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and expression of religion, as well as other constitutional violations.

A judge has not yet ruled on the motion for consent judgment, which would permanently enjoin the IRS from enforcing the Johnson Amendment against the plaintiff churches.

The New York Times first reported the filing.

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