1. United States
2. Conn.
3. Letter

I write to object to the Trump Administration’s efforts to ignore long-standing federal law by attempting to exempt houses of worship and religious organizations from the Johnson Amendment, which clearly prohibits 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations from endorsing or opposing partisan political candidates for public office. These efforts undermine one of the most trusted sections of civil society – nonpartisan houses of worship and charitable nonprofits. The prohibition on political campaign intervention by 501(c)(3) nonprofits is often called “the Johnson Amendment,” and it was adopted with broad bipartisan support in Congress and signed by a Republican president. For more than 70 years, it has ensured that all tax-exempt charitable nonprofits do not become conduits for partisan politics, protecting public trust in religious institutions and preserving the integrity of elections. Weakening the provision threatens to erode public trust, risk policy capture by special interests, and dilute regulatory oversight. This proposed change to the Johnson Amendment - as seen in National Religious Broadcasters v. Long - would allow the two churches party to this case to endorse political candidates from the pulpit without risking their tax‑exempt status. This risks opening the floodgates for any church, synagogue, mosque, temple, or other house of worship to do the same, and it could create a slippery slope to do the same for all nonprofits. If the court approves this settlement, houses of worship would be subject to intense political pressure to engage in electoral politics from down ballot races and primaries to the presidency, distracting them from their missions. It would also create a loophole for the political donors to enjoy tax deductible donations for their political campaign contributions, exploiting houses of worship for political gains. Weakening the Johnson Amendment would jeopardize the integrity of the entire nonprofit community. This proposed legal action is alarming, as it escalates a broader effort to dismantle the longstanding expectation that charitable organizations stay above the political fray in both practice and principle. This is not a matter of religious freedom or speech. It is about fundamentally reshaping how political money flows through our system. If successful, it would open the door for political actors to use charitable nonprofits as conduits for anonymous campaign funding, benefiting from substantial tax write-offs while shifting the financial burden onto taxpayers who may disagree with the candidates or causes being supported. Charitable nonprofits are among the last institutions where people from all walks of life come together to tackle local challenges. Undermining the legal safeguards that preserve their neutrality could seriously erode public trust and compromise the sector’s ability to carry out its mission. I urge you to fight the Trump Administration's attempt to ignore the Johnson Amendment.