In a victory for church-state separation, a federal court in Texas on March 31 ruled that it had no authority to approve a settlement agreement proposed by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the plaintiffs in National Religious Broadcasters v. Bessent which would have exempted houses of worship from the Johnson Amendment. The ruling maintains the 70-year old federal law that prevents 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations, including houses of worship, from endorsing or opposing partisan political candidates for public office.
As the sole organization that stepped up to defend the Johnson Amendment in court, Americans United had urged the court to reject the proposed settlement because the court had no authority to hear the case. Additionally, the proposed settlement would have treated houses of worship differently than secular nonprofits — an unconstitutional violation of church-state separation. “We’re glad that the Johnson Amendment will remain a strong bulwark to stop religious extremists from exploiting houses of worship,” said AU President and CEO Rachel Laser.
“The proposed settlement agreement … would have been unhealthy for our democracy because it would allow churches to become unaccountable political action committees,” Laser added. “The court was right to reject the administration’s attempt to use the courts to rewrite our laws.”