Federal Judge Tosses IRS Agreement Allowing Churches to Endorse Political Candidates

A federal judge on Tuesday, April 1, dismissed a settlement between President Donald Trump’s Internal Revenue Service and two Texas churches, along with the National Religious Broadcasters (NRB) that would have allowed churches to endorse political candidates without risking their tax-exempt status. US District Judge J. Campbell Barker in Tyler, a Trump appointee, ruled he lacked jurisdiction to approve the pact.

Under the proposed agreement, traditional religious communications would have been deemed exempt from the Johnson Amendment, a 1954 tax code provision that bars religious and secular nonprofits from endorsing political candidates. The IRS entered the agreement in July to settle a lawsuit brought by the NRB ahead of the 2024 presidential election. Barker sided with opponents, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, who argued the Tax Anti-Injunction Act blocked him from approving the deal.

Michael Farris, NRB’s general counsel, said the organization plans to appeal, arguing that the judge’s decision ignores an Anti-Injunction Act exemption. Family Research Council president Tony Perkins called the ruling a missed opportunity “to correct a wrong that strikes at the very heart of American freedom.” President Joe Biden’s DOJ had previously defended the Johnson Amendment’s constitutionality, but the direction changed under President Trump, who has called for the provision to be repealed.

(BB/VFI News)

“If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” – 2 Chronicles 7:14