TYLER, Texas (Michigan News Source) – A case that could reshape the First Amendment landscape may be thundering through the church doors of America soon.
The case, National Religious Broadcasters, Sand Springs Church, First Baptist Church Waskom, and Intercessors for America vs. the IRS, is about the Johnson Amendment, a provision of the tax code barring 501(c)(3) organizations from engaging in political campaigning. The plaintiffs are represented by a group of attorneys which includes David Kallman of Michigan’s Kallman Legal Group, PLLC.
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Kallman, along with constitutional heavyweight Mike Farris of National Religious Broadcasters and Andrew W. Stinson of Ramey & Flock, PC, have brokered a monumental agreement with the IRS that effectively kneecaps the Johnson Amendment – a decades-old tool used to muzzle churches and nonprofits on political matters by threatening their tax-exempt status.
According to the joint motion, stipulation and agreement filed with the court on July 7, it states that when a house of worship speaks “in good faith” about electoral politics from a religious perspective, such speech does not constitute intervention in a political campaign.
IRS admits Johnson Amendment violates free speech.
“The IRS acknowledged in our case that it violates the First Amendment of the US Constitution for it to regulate the speech of pastors and churches as required by the Johnson Amendment,” David Kallman wrote in his July 12 column sent to Michigan News Source.
Kallman went on to say, “For the first 178 years of our existence as a nation, churches and pastors were free to speak out on any issue, including in the political arena. For the past 71 years, the Johnson Amendment effectively muzzled the speech of some churches and other 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations.”
Legal team: IRS can’t pick and choose free speech winners.
In the case, the plaintiff’s legal team argued that if newspapers and universities – also nonprofits – can endorse candidates and take political stances without IRS retribution, churches should enjoy the same constitutional protection.
The pending order prohibits the Treasury Department from taking any adverse action against houses of worship for speech about “moral or political issues from a religious perspective,” especially when similar speech hasn’t triggered penalties for other groups.
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“This upcoming order does not require churches or nonprofits to speak out in a particular manner on anything,” Kallman wrote. “But churches and pastors now have their full free speech rights restored.”
Consent deal in limbo as group seeks to intervene.
While most media outlets have portrayed the consent agreement in this case as a done deal, the judge has not signed off on it yet and David Kallman tells Michigan News Source that the Americans United for Separation of Church and State filed a request last Thursday, July 10, to intervene in the case, possibly complicating a quick resolution of the issue.
Americans United for Separation of Church and State (AU), a liberal advocacy group that opposes religious influence in government and promotes a strict interpretation of the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause, filed a last-minute request to intervene in the case. Kallman called it a “wrinkle” as he awaits the judge’s final decision.
AU says in their filing that the government cannot carve out religious groups for special treatment under the law. The organization also warns that the settlement would “deprive Americans United of equal treatment.” They took issue with the IRS’s sudden reversal in defending the law, calling it a move that upends “decades-long understandings of when and how the Johnson Amendment applies.”
Citing their concerns, AU formally asked the court to allow them to intervene in the case. Alternatively, if denied, they’re requesting permission to file an amicus brief within 14 days of the court’s ruling on their motion.
Now, all eyes are on Judge Barker in Texas. Will he finalize the consent order and finally put the Johnson Amendment out to pasture? Or will Americans United’s last-ditch legal maneuver throw a wrench into what many see as a long-overdue course correction for the First Amendment? As the legal dust settles, one thing is clear: the pulpit may soon be free to roar again – and the IRS might just have to get used to the sound.
