Religious Liberty Commission Draft Report Recommends Repealing the Johnson Amendment

What happened:
On July 3, the Religious Liberty Commission — created by a May 1, 2025 executive order — released a draft report with 12 recommendations following a year of hearings. Recommendation 9 calls for repealing the Johnson Amendment, the tax code provision that has barred 501(c)(3) organizations, including houses of worship, from endorsing or opposing candidates since 1954. It also backs legislation such as the Free Speech Fairness Act to repeal the amendment outright and the Safeguarding Charity Act to limit federal regulation of tax-exempt organizations more broadly.

Until the Johnson Amendment is repealed, the Commission recommends that:

• The Treasury issue guidance clarifying that the amendment doesn’t reach religious speech by houses of worship and faith-based nonprofits.
• The DOJ back litigation challenging the amendment’s constitutionality and open an inquiry into alleged IRS “weaponization” against religious organizations.

Why it matters for Pennsylvania nonprofits:
This pushes the Johnson Amendment fight — which PANO has tracked since April through a dismissed court challenge and planned Treasury guidance — into a formal, White House-created commission recommending repeal, litigation, and an IRS investigation all at once. If the Treasury adopts the guidance recommended here, enforcement could narrow for houses of worship well before Congress acts, while the law stays on the books for every other 501(c)(3) — inviting the same donor and partisan-pressure risks the sector has long relied on the amendment’s nonpartisanship requirement to prevent.

What to do:
The comment period closes July 12. Organizations can find instructions here for submitting comments.

Update — May 2026

In early May 2026, the Department of Justice released a 200-page report, “Eradicating Anti-Christian Bias Within the Federal Government,” claiming the prior administration had selectively enforced the Johnson Amendment against conservative Christian churches. Religious liberty and civil liberties groups, including the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, publicly disputed the report’s framing. PANO noted that characterizing enforcement as partisan weaponization appeared to lay groundwork for further efforts to weaken the rule, and that Treasury and the IRS had separately announced plans to issue new guidance on how the law applies to religious organizations.

Update — April 2026

In April 2026, PANO published a primer on the Johnson Amendment after a federal court dismissed a legal challenge to the rule, leaving it in place. At the time, Treasury and the IRS had just announced plans to issue new guidance on how the law applies to religious organizations, and plaintiffs were expected to appeal. PANO reiterated that nonprofits may lobby on policy issues and conduct nonpartisan voter education, but may not endorse candidates or use organizational communications for candidate advocacy.