Two churches and a religious group sued the IRS in 2024, saying their First Amendment rights were violated by the ban on endorsing candidates in elections.

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President Donald Trump has long called for Johnson Amendment to be repealed.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

  • shalafi@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    3 days ago

    Nah, they couldn’t have. Imagine the howls of outrage such an “attack” on the church would raise. No politician would survive that.