Law experts react to IRS filing allowing churches to endorse political candidates
The Johnson Amendment, introduced by then- U.S. Senator and future President Lyndon B. Johnson, threatened churches with losing their non-profit status if they communicated political beliefs.
TYLER, Texas (KLTV) - Pastors and other religious leaders can now endorse political candidates from the pulpit following an Internal Revenue Service court filing outlining that the agency will no longer enforce the Johnson Amendment.
The amendment, introduced in 1954 by then- U.S. Senator and future President Lyndon B. Johnson threatened churches with losing their non-profit status if they communicated political beliefs.
Two East Texas churches, Sand Springs Church in Athens and First Baptist Church Waskom, were among the plaintiffs in the argument.
“This change could make religious institutions major financial players in political campaigns,” said Randy Roberts, senior attorney at Roberts & Roberts. “Under this IRS interpretation, people can give large amounts of money to religious institutions for the purpose of contributing to a campaign, they can write it off on their taxes, and the fact that they gave the money is not disclosed.”
An IRS spokesman said the court filing speaks for itself.
Some supporters have argued the Johnson Amendment violates free speech and religious liberty. President Donald Trump has spoken out against the amendment.
University of Texas at Tyler Assistant Professor of Business Law Dr. Kevin White said the filing is limited in scope; however, it could have a nationwide impact.
“It could embolden other churches to engage in more political activity because now they know exactly what the IRS’s posture is,” said White.
“The separation of church and state will become blurrier with this new ruling,” added Roberts. “You’re going to see more politicization of religious institutions, and at the end of the day, I suspect you’ll see religious institutions being major players in campaign finance.”
“Those who opposed this new IRS ruling basically argued that the threat to the churches was a paper tiger, because realistically, there is no history of any church being prosecuted for violating the Johnson Amendment,” Roberts said. “In the last 20 years, only one religious institution has been audited, and none of them penalized.”
A member of First Baptist Church Waskom said they had no comment.
Sand Springs Church Senior Pastor Erick Graham provided the following statement:
“While court filing is encouraging, it’s not final until the judge reviews the order. We aren’t able to comment until the judge decides.”
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