Americans United filed a complaint with a top IRS official, accusing a pastor of a Nevada church of illegally endorsing Barack Obama this past Sunday. More details at the Nonprofit Law Prof blog... the complaint (PDF) is interesting... the IRS gives some leeway to pastors and other religious leaders for endorsements in their individual capacity, but not when they use church resources to do so. This pastor made the comments during a sermon.
This situation reminds me of a moment in a documentary I just watched with the late Jerry Falwell speaking before his student base at Liberty University (a 501(c)(3) as is his church)... paraphrasing: "the IRS says Liberty University can't endorse George Bush. But I can." This was followed by a long litany of reasons to vote for George Bush. The event was held in a university arena by the head of the university... there are other factors to weigh here in a facts and circumstances analysis, but I don't recall any IRS action aimed at Falwell for that event.
What does this say? There's technically illegal actions and illegal actions that receive IRS scrutiny. Since the process is ruled by "facts and circumstances" analysis, it's totally subjective and it can be difficult to rectify in one's mind why one case receives sanctions and the other does not.
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