On January 13, 2019, Judge Haywood Gilliam of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California issued a preliminary injunction to halt enforcement of the Trump administration’s two final rules on religious and moral objections to the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA’s) contraceptive mandate […]
He has declared that his administration would “totally destroy” the Johnson Amendment, thereby enabling tax-exempt churches to endorse or oppose political candidates and to engage in lobbying activities. Courts have held that the Johnson Amendment does not violate the First Amendment.
The Johnson Amendment changed the tax code in 1954 to prevent 501(c)(3) entities—that is, tax-exempt charities, including churches—“from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office.” …