The IRS has no Business Acting as Speech Police

Pulpit Freedom Sunday: Pastors to Protest IRS Restrictions on Speaking About Politics.

Pastors across the country will protest Internal Revenue Service restrictions on them not to talk politics in the church as they observe the annual Pulpit Freedom Sunday, days after the introduction of the Free Speech Fairness Act in the U.S. House to reinstate pastors’ and churches’ rights to speak freely.

“The IRS has no business acting as the speech police of any non-profit organization, as its many scandals over recent years have made clear,” said Erik Stanley, senior counsel of the Arizona-based Alliance Defending Freedom, which started Pulpit Freedom Sunday in 2008.

The Johnson Amendment, which Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has vowed to repeal, says non-profits, including churches, cannot speak in favor of political candidates, and the Free Speech Fairness Act, a bill that Rep. Steve Scalise and Rep. Jody Hice, both Republican, introduced in the House Wednesday, would restrict enforcement of the Johnson Amendment against churches and other non-profit groups.