Amid all the other big news this week, a landmark development in a federal court in Texas drew less attention than expected.
On Monday, the IRS agreed to a consent judgment that will restore the First Amendment rights of churches and religious non-profit organizations to speak freely without losing their tax-exempt status. The court should quickly approve that proposed settlement of a lawsuit filed by the National Religious Broadcasters and Texas churches, which was brought to overturn a 1950s-era provision in the tax code known as “the Johnson Amendment.”
As a former constitutional law litigator, I — along with many of my former colleagues — have long argued that the Johnson Amendment is unconstitutional.
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