The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) will not impose restrictions on the ability of churches to endorse political candidates, the agency said in a recent court filing.
This move is an apparent departure from the longstanding policy of the IRS, as outlined in the Johnson Amendment, a 1954 addition to the tax code that prohibits 501(c)(3) organizations from directly endorsing political candidates.
President Donald Trump has long been critical of the Johnson Amendment, and he vowed to “totally destroy” it during his first term. In 2017, he signed an executive order promoting “free speech and religious liberty.”
While the order did not overturn the Johnson Amendment, it did seek to halt enforcement of it.
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The executive order was the fulfillment of a campaign promise to free up pastors to endorse political candidates—particularly evangelical pastors who were supportive of Trump.
“The Johnson Amendment has blocked our pastors and ministers and others from speaking their minds from their own pulpits,” Trump said during his 2016 presidential campaign. “If they want to talk about Christianity, if they want to preach, if they want to talk about politics, they are unable to do so…All religious leaders should be able to freely express their thoughts and feelings on religious matters.
Of the executive order, Trump said, “No one should be censoring sermons or targeting pastors.”
“You are now in a position where you can say what you want to say,” he added. “We are giving the churches their voices back.”
In a recent court filing for a case involving the National Religious Broadcasters (NRB) and at least two churches, the IRS acknowledged that it “generally has not enforced the Johnson Amendment against houses of worship for speech concerning electoral politics in the context of worship services.”
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Indeed, numerous pastors, including Southern California Pastor Jack Hibbs, have routinely flouted tax code to explicitly endorse political candidates during worship services—without apparent fear of consequences.
 will not impose restrictions on the ability of churches to endorse political candidates, the agency said in a recent court filing. ){kind=link}