US judge rejects IRS pact allowing churches to endorse political candidates [View all]

Source: Yahoo! News/Reuters

Tue, March 31, 2026 at 7:25 PM EDT


March 31 (Reuters) - A federal judge on Tuesday declined to approve a Trump administration-crafted settlement that would have allowed churches and other houses of worship to endorse ‌political candidates to their congregations without risking losing their status as tax-exempt nonprofits.

U.S. District ‌Judge J. Campbell Barker in Tyler, Texas, ruled he lacked jurisdiction to hear the case and sign off on a consent ​judgment that the U.S. Internal Revenue Service had entered into with two Texas churches and the National Religious Broadcasters. Under the IRS' proposed pact, traditional religious communications would be deemed exempt from a decades-old provision in the U.S. tax code that bars nonprofits, religious and secular, from endorsing political candidates.

It entered into that agreement ‌in July to resolve a lawsuit ⁠that NRB, an association of Christian broadcasters, filed ahead of the 2024 presidential election to challenge the 1954 tax code provision known as the Johnson Amendment, which ⁠was named for then-Senator Lyndon Johnson, who went on to become president.

But Barker, who was appointed by Trump during his first administration, sided with opponents of the agreement from the Americans United for Separation of Church ​and ​State in finding the Tax Anti-Injunction Act barred him ​from approving the deal.

Read more: https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/us-judge-rejects-irs-pact-232559286.html