First Liberty Institute filed a friend-of-the-court brief at the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas on behalf of Grace Church St. Louis (MO) and New Way Church (FL) in support of a joint motion for the entry of a consent judgement approving the Internal Revenue Service’s (“IRS”) agreement that churches and religious organizations will no longer face investigation under the “Johnson Amendment” when talking to their congregation about politics.
You can read the brief here.
The agreement came after the National Religious Broadcasters (“NRB”) and others sued the federal agency over its rules regarding political activity and reached an agreement with the IRS that would end the enforcement of the Johnson Amendment against America’s houses of worship in almost all situations.
“First Amendment rights do not end when a pastor, church member or even a political candidate steps on the platform of a church,” said Jeremy Dys, Senior Counsel at First Liberty Institute. “But the Johnson Amendment denies the promise of the First Amendment to churches and pastors on critical cultural issues. We hope the court will finalize the agreement reached by the parties here, but we also call upon Congress to delete the 31 words of the Internal Revenue Code that LBJ added in 1954.”
First Liberty Institute successfully defended two churches recently, Grace Church St. Louis and New Way Church in Florida, after the IRS announced investigations into alleged political involvement. In both cases, the IRS closed the investigations.
In the brief, attorneys argue, “Because the Johnson Amendment is woefully out of step with this nation’s historic commitment to free speech, church autonomy, and religious liberty, it should be declared unlawful in its entirety and enjoined from ever being weaponized against houses of worship ever again. But for now, this Court should secure these constitutional commitments by granting the modest Joint Motion for Entry of Consent Judgement proposed by the parties.”
