عنوان

Tax Law Bans on Political Campaign Speech by Houses of Worship:

Number

LA116083

.Language of Text, Soundtrack etc

انگلیسی

Title Proper

Tax Law Bans on Political Campaign Speech by Houses of Worship:

General Material Designation

[Article]

Other Title Information

Inappropriate Government Censorship and Intrusion on Religion

First Statement of Responsibility

Nina J. Crimm, Laurence H. Winer, Nina J. Crimm, et al.

Place of Publication, Distribution, etc.

Leiden

Name of Publisher, Distributor, etc.

Brill | Nijhoff

Text of Note

To ensure their legitimacy, western liberal democracies depend on the fullest protection for freedom of political and electoral speech. Governments should not interfere with or chill these fundamental rights of democratic participation without sufficiently compelling reasons to do so. In the US, however, despite the majestic protections of the First Amendment, anomalously there remains a large class of nonprofit entities that are statutorily precluded from this type of crucial political involvement, and this exceptional restriction on speech is incongruously based in the federal tax code. In particular, spiritual leaders who feel theologically compelled to speak out on critical moral and political issues of the day risk the tax-exempt status of their houses of worship if they cross an amorphous line into explicit or implicit political campaign speech. Both freedom of expression and religious freedom are at stake, and the tax system is a particularly inapt and inept mechanism for restricting speech and influencing the political activity of houses of worship. To ensure their legitimacy, western liberal democracies depend on the fullest protection for freedom of political and electoral speech. Governments should not interfere with or chill these fundamental rights of democratic participation without sufficiently compelling reasons to do so. In the US, however, despite the majestic protections of the First Amendment, anomalously there remains a large class of nonprofit entities that are statutorily precluded from this type of crucial political involvement, and this exceptional restriction on speech is incongruously based in the federal tax code. In particular, spiritual leaders who feel theologically compelled to speak out on critical moral and political issues of the day risk the tax-exempt status of their houses of worship if they cross an amorphous line into explicit or implicit political campaign speech. Both freedom of expression and religious freedom are at stake, and the tax system is a particularly inapt and inept mechanism for restricting speech and influencing the political activity of houses of worship.

Date of Publication

2013

Physical description

101-136

Title

Journal of Law, Religion and State

Volume Number

2/2

International Standard Serial Number

2212-4810

Subject Term

free speech

Subject Term

houses of worship

Subject Term

political speech

Subject Term

religious freedom

Subject Term

tax-exempt nonprofits

Laurence H. Winer

Nina J. Crimm

Call Number

10.1163/22124810-00202001

Electronic name

p

[Article]

275578

a

Y