Comparing it to a family discussion, the Internal Revenue Service agreed on Monday that pastors and other religious leaders can endorse political candidates to their congregation without threatening their tax-exempt status under a decades-old laws called the Johnson Amendment.
The amendment, which has been in effect since 1954, makes religious leaders and entities liable to lose their 501(c) (3) tax-exempt status in the event that they endorse specific candidates ahead of elections or engage in other forms of political activity. The measure also prohibits churches, synagogues, mosques and other nonprofit institutions from raising money for political candidates.
Supporters view the Johnson Amendment as a way to separate church and state in modern American life, while critics have long argued that it infringes on First Amendment rights for religious leaders to talk out about what is going on within the political realm.
In a joint motion for entry of consent judgment submitted within the U.S. District Court Eastern District of Texas Tyler Division, the National Religious Broadcasters, Intercessors for America, two Texas churches, together with defendants IRS Commissioner Billy Long, jointly asked the court to exempt houses of worship from the Johnson Amendment.
The agreement is a bid by the parties to settle a lawsuit filed by the plaintiffs on Aug. 28, 2024, which argues that “the Johnson Amendment facially and as applied violates their First Amendment rights to the liberty of speech and free exercise of faith, their Fifth Amendment rights to due means of law and equal protection under the law, and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.”
“When a house of worship in good faith speaks to its congregation, through its customary channels of communication on matters of religion in reference to religious services, concerning electoral politics viewed through the lens of non secular faith, it neither ‘participate[s]’ nor ‘intervene[s]’ in a ‘political campaign,’ throughout the abnormal meaning of those words,” the motion states.
“To ‘participate’ in a political campaign is ‘to participate’ within the political campaign, and to ‘intervene’ in a political campaign is ‘to interfere with the final result or course’ of the political campaign,” it continues.
“Bona fide communications internal to a house of worship, between the home of worship and its congregation, in reference to religious services, do neither of those things, any greater than does a family discussion concerning candidates. Thus, communications from a house of worship to its congregation in reference to religious services through its usual channels of communication on matters of religion don’t run afoul of the Johnson Amendment as properly interpreted.”
The proposed judgment and final order agreed that the plaintiffs’ interpretation of the Johnson Amendment is consistent with the best way the IRS has applied the law in practice.
“The IRS generally has not enforced the Johnson Amendment against houses of worship for speech concerning electoral politics within the context of worship services,” it states.
If this proposal is accepted by the court, it could fulfill certainly one of President Donald Trump’s campaign guarantees to his Evangelical base.
On his method to being elected in his first term in 2016, President Trump pledged to repeal the Johnson Amendment.
“At this moment, I would really like to thank the Evangelical and spiritual community and I’m undecided I totally deserve it. … They have a lot to contribute to our politics, yet our laws prevent you from speaking your minds from your personal pulpits,” Trump told the audience gathered on the ultimate night of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, in July 2016.
“An amendment, pushed by Lyndon Johnson, a few years ago, threatens religious institutions with a lack of their tax-exempt status in the event that they openly advocate their political beliefs,” he added. “I’m going to work very hard to repeal that language and protect free speech for all Americans.”
Considering repealing the Johnson Amendment would take an act of Congress, Trump directed the IRS early in his first term to not implement the Johnson Amendment on houses of worship and spiritual organizations.
Kelly Shackelford, president and chief counsel for First Liberty, a conservative legal organization dedicated exclusively to defending religious freedom for all Americans, praised Monday’s proposed settlement.
“First Amendment rights don’t end when a pastor, church member and even a politician steps on the platform of a church,” Shackelford said in an announcement to The Christian Post. “The IRS weaponized the Johnson Amendment to silence churches and pastors for a long time. This is great news for religious organizations, churches, and spiritual liberty.”
Doug Pagitt, a Minnesota pastor and executive director of the progressive Evangelical grassroots organization Vote Common Good, also praised the IRS’ recent decision.
“The I.R.S.’s decision to permit churches to endorse candidates from the pulpit levels a playing field that has been lopsided for a long time. For too long, Republican politicians and their allies have spoken freely from pulpits, while too many Democrats and faith leaders held back, anxious they might cross an invisible line. This decision removes that roadblock,” he wrote in an announcement to CP.
“We view this as a big opportunity for Democrats to have interaction faith voters en masse. With 80% of Christian voters open to voting for a Democrat, this variation opens the door for more honest, values-based conversations in faith communities across the country.”
Others weren’t as supportive of the news.
Diane Yentel, president and CEO of the National Council of Nonprofits, called the agreement “an assault on the bedrock principle that charitable organizations must remain nonpartisan in law.”
“This motion — long sought by President Trump — isn’t about religion or free speech, but about radically altering campaign finance laws. The decree could open the floodgates for political operatives to funnel money to their preferred candidates while receiving generous tax breaks on the expense of taxpayers who may not share those views,” Yentel wrote in an announcement.
“Charitable nonprofit organizations function secure havens from the caustic partisanship that continues to divide the nation. These institutions are among the many last trusted spaces where individuals can come together across political lines to handle community needs. Repealing or weakening the Johnson Amendment risks politicizing these spaces, undermining their integrity, effectiveness, and the general public’s confidence in them.”
In recent years, progressive secular organizations have called for IRS investigations into Christian organizations they perceived to have violated the Johnson Amendment.
In April, the IRS closed an investigation right into a Florida church accused of violating its tax-exempt status by praying for an area school board candidate during worship service. The investigation was initiated in July 2024 in the course of the final 12 months of the Biden administration. In response, the law firm Jones Day, representing the church, sent a letter in August arguing that the church was inside its First Amendment rights to permit the varsity board candidate to talk on the service.
In February 2024, the Freedom From Religion Foundation urged the IRS to revoke the tax-exempt status of the Southern California-based Calvary Chapel Chino Hills, led by Pastor Jack Hibbs, who encouraged his congregation to vote for Republican Steve Garvey in California’s U.S. Senate race.
“I just remembered it’s against the law for me to say that within the pulpit,” Hibbs said on the time as he stepped away from the pulipt to complete his statement. “As a public citizen, Steve Garvey isn’t only certainly one of the best baseball players of all time. But we wish Steve Garvey to represent us within the Senate. So, Steve Garvey is your only guy on the ballot.”
Some progressive pastors have also been vocal from the pulpit.
In 2022, Pastor Jamal Bryant of the New Birth Missionary Baptist Church within the Atlanta area criticized Republican Herschel Walker and encouraged his congregation to vote for Democrat Raphael Warnock for the U.S. Senate seat in Georgia.
Last November, an Alabama church drew headlines for a posting on its church sign calling minority Trump supporters “ignorant,” which drew criticism from Alabama’s Lt. Gov. Will Ainsworth.
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