With the 2024 election less than three months away, there could not be a better time for clergy and churches to refresh themselves on the legal parameters on what they can do and say about candidates, political parties, and public policy in an election year. Understandably, religious organizations and leaders often have strong religious and moral convictions on matters of public policy. When political parties and candidates have differences on policy matters, religious leaders often feel compelled to publicly bear witness to those convictions in the context of discussing elections. Religious organizations and leaders are faced with the same legal limitations as their secular tax-exempt counterparts. That is, organizations described in section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code (the Tax Code), may not participate in, or intervene in (including the publishing or distributing of statements), any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for federal, state, or local public office. This is known as the prohibition on political campaign intervention. This column will focus principally on the Tax Code's limitations on churches and clergy in their ministerial (non-personal) capacity and will not address any additional limitations imposed by federal election law.

At a minimum, the Tax Code's prohibition constrains churches—and clergy speaking on behalf of a denomination or house of worship—from explicitly endorsing or donating church funds or resources to a candidate for public office. For example, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld the IRS's revocation of tax-exempt status for a church in Binghamton, New York, that had taken out full-page advertisements in USA Today and The Washington Times four days before the 1992 U.S. presidential election urging Christians not to vote for then-candidate Bill Clinton. See Branch Ministries v. Rossotti, 211 F.3d 137 (D.C. Cir. 2000). But does the same prohibition prevent clergy and churches from taking stands on political issues on which parties and candidates themselves take public stands?