July 8 (UPI) — The Internal Revenue Service says it will now disregard a tax code proviso that would remove the tax-exempt status from a house of worship that endorses political candidates.
A joint motion for entry of consent judgment was filed Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas Tyler Division in a case in which a pair of churches and a Christian multimedia association filed suit against the IRS and its Commissioner Billy Long in August of 2024.
The judgement stops the IRS from enforcing the Johnson Amendment, which the IRS describes as a “ban on political campaign activity by charities and churches” that was created by Congress over 50 years ago.
According to the judgement, the court granted the motion in part because “the IRS generally has not enforced the Johnson Amendment against houses of worship for speech concerning electoral politics in the context of worship services.”
However, Monday’s decision is only a proposed order and final judgement, and still requires a consent judgment in favor of the order before the IRS is permanently banned from enforcement of the Johnson Amendment.
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