The Internal Revenue Service says pastors and churches endorsing political candidates should not lose their tax-exempt status.
It comes amid a lawsuit brought against the IRS by two churches in Texas that have been pushing to overturn a ban, otherwise in place for decades, on religious and secular tax-exempt nonprofits alike promoting political candidates to their members, the New York Times reports.
In a court filing submitted on Monday, the IRS agreed to a carve-out from the ban for churches and other tax-exempt religious institutions, with the prohibitions remaining in place for secular organizations.
“It basically tells churches of all denominations and sects that you’re free to support candidates from the pulpit,” University of Notre Dame law professor Lloyd Hitoshi Mayer told the Times. “It also says to all candidates and parties, ‘Hey, time to recruit some churches.’”
President Donald Trump has consistently called for the ban, which was introduced by President Lyndon B. Johnson when he was a senator in 1954. The so-called Johnson Amendment has remained in place ever since.
Mindful of Trump’s popularity among Christian groups—in particular white Evangelical Protestants, according to studies by the Pew Research Center—critics almost immediately slammed the exemption as a cynical political move.
“This action—long sought by President Trump—is not about religion or free speech, but about radically altering campaign finance laws,” Diane Yentel, president of the 30,000-organization strong National Council of Nonprofits, said in a statement Monday.
“The decree could open the floodgates for political operatives to funnel money to their preferred candidates while receiving generous tax breaks at the expense of taxpayers who may not share those views,” she added.
The IRS has typically chosen not to enforce the Johnson Amendment against churches for speech relating to politics. In 2017, Trump signed an executive order at the White House instructing the Treasury to take a lenient approach to enforcing the rule against religious organizations.
“I will get rid of and totally destroy the Johnson Amendment and allow our representatives of faith to speak freely and without fear of retribution,” Trump said at a 2017 National Prayer Breakfast. Despite his vow, Congress has not repealed the measure.
The Daily Beast has contacted the IRS for comment.
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