Last year, two churches and two religious nonprofits filed a lawsuit challenging the Johnson Amendment. While the court has not yet issued a ruling, the lawsuit has already brought some much-needed change.
In July 2025, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) responded to the lawsuit by reversing decades of prior guidance to clarify that the Johnson Amendment permits churches to speak about political topics in certain religious contexts.
This new IRS interpretation respects the free speech of pastors when speaking to their congregations through the “usual channels of communication,” which is a step in the right direction. But there is still more work to be done to protect the First Amendment rights of nonprofit organizations.
The troubled history of the Johnson Amendment
The Johnson Amendment was first added to the Internal Revenue Code in 1954. From the beginning, its purposes were dubious, at best.
Then-Senator Lyndon B. Johnson faced a tough challenge to re-election, and he introduced the Johnson Amendment to silence two secular nonprofit organizations that supported his challenger.
In other words, Johnson apparently brought the amendment to chill the speech of his political opponents. Unfortunately, this chilling effect has continued to this day.
On paper, the Johnson Amendment prohibits 501(c)(3) organizations from “participat[ing] in, or interven[ing] in (including the publishing or distributing of statements), any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for public office.” But what constitutes “participation” or “intervention” in a political campaign?
Over the last 30 years, the IRS has issued multiple guidance documents to help answer this question. But by using expansive and vague language, this IRS guidance expanded religious restrictions far beyond the plain text of the statute, blurring the lines even further.
As a result, churches and pastors across the country have censored themselves and worried about whether they can address important biblical issues that intersect with politics, including marriage, the sanctity of life, and gender. Pastors frequently contact Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys with questions about what they can and can’t say from the pulpit.
The First Amendment protects free speech for all Americans, and those protections are strongest when a religious leader speaks from the pulpit. Pastors should be free to preach biblical truth without fearing government investigations or punishment.
The unconstitutionality of the Johnson Amendment
For decades, ADF has warned that the Johnson Amendment is unconstitutional because it tramples on First Amendment freedoms. We led an initiative called Pulpit Freedom Sunday to champion free speech for pastors, testified before Congress about the First Amendment rights of churches, and sent a letter to legislators encouraging them to end enforcement of the Johnson Amendment.
ADF attorneys also recently filed an amicus brief on behalf of two churches that faced IRS investigations tied to the Johnson Amendment.
“For centuries, churches and religious leaders have enjoyed the freedom to preach on biblical matters, and they did not surrender that freedom simply because the religious teaching relates to political affairs of the day,” ADF wrote in our amicus brief. “The Christian Bible’s New Testament shows that Christianity has always engaged with political leaders and issues.”
American history is replete with “election sermons” applying religious principles to the political issues of the day. Examples abound from the American Revolution, the Civil War, the abolition of slavery, women’s suffrage, and the civil rights movement, including many sermons delivered by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Today’s churches face similarly weighty moral issues that intersect with policy, including the sanctity of life from abortion to assisted suicide, the meaning of marriage and gender, immigration, war, and human trafficking. The IRS has no business parsing through a pastor’s sermons to determine if it complies with arbitrary government standards.
It’s time to stop the Johnson Amendment’s censorship of free speech
The IRS’s latest interpretation of the Johnson Amendment allows pastors to speak to their congregations in certain religious contexts, which we should all celebrate. But threats to free speech remain, leaving question marks for churches and religious organizations.
For one thing, it leaves out nonprofit organizations, both religious and secular, that are not churches. Just as churches should be able to speak about candidates’ positions on biblical issues, other nonprofits should be able to detail which candidates align with issues that are important to them. Under the Johnson Amendment, many nonprofit leaders remain unsure whether they can do so.
In addition, the IRS is a government agency, meaning its leadership is subject to change. President Donald Trump has been an outspoken critic of using the Johnson Amendment to target churches, so it makes sense that the Department of the Treasury, under his leadership, interprets the Johnson Amendment more favorably for churches. But what happens if a president with a different interpretation of the Johnson Amendment is elected? Will the IRS reverse course and begin applying it more strictly against churches?
Sadly, as long as the Johnson Amendment exists in its current form, the threat of investigation and punishment for nonprofit organizations remains. It’s long past time to stop the Johnson Amendment’s censorship of religious entities and fully protect free speech.
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