The Trump administration has said that the US Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service will issue fresh guidance on how the Johnson Amendment applies to religious organisations, promising greater clarity on what houses of worship may say in the context of religious services.
In a statement issued on 3 April, the Treasury said the new guidance would provide “clear, administrable standards” for houses of worship, including how the law applies to certain communications made within religious services. Treasury said the guidance would be developed with input from relevant stakeholders and released later this year.
The Johnson Amendment, first enacted in 1954, bars 501(c)(3) organisations, including churches and charities, from participating or intervening in political campaigns on behalf of, or in opposition to, candidates for public office. The IRS says Congress later strengthened the provision, and notes that churches may still engage to a limited extent in lobbying and in advocacy on public issues, provided they do not cross into candidate endorsement or opposition.
The administration’s announcement follows recent litigation in which religious plaintiffs challenged the long-standing restriction, arguing that it infringed their First Amendment rights. According to the Treasury, the government had sought to resolve that case on the basis that bona fide communications internal to a house of worship, made through customary channels in connection with religious services and on matters of faith, should not be treated as prohibited political campaign intervention under current law.
That effort, however, suffered a setback on 31 March when a federal judge in Texas dismissed the case and declined to approve a proposed agreement that would have prevented the IRS from enforcing the Johnson Amendment against the churches involved. Judge J. Campbell Barker said the court lacked authority to grant the relief sought in that form, while indicating that other legal avenues remained open.
The ruling left the Johnson Amendment in force, even as the administration signalled its intention to pursue further clarification through executive guidance rather than through that specific court settlement.
Debate over the measure has intensified in recent years because it sits at the intersection of religious liberty, tax law and partisan politics. Supporters of the restriction argue that it helps preserve the non-partisan character of charities and churches, while critics contend that it can chill legitimate religious speech. The forthcoming guidance appears likely to focus especially on speech addressed to congregations during worship and other internal religious communications. This last point is an inference from the Treasury statement’s emphasis on “communications made within the context of religious services” and the case background it cited.
For Catholic institutions, the announcement does not necessarily imply any immediate practical change in approach. When a related IRS interpretation drew attention in 2025, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops said that the Catholic Church “maintains its stance of not endorsing or opposing political candidates”, adding that the Church’s role is to help Catholics form their consciences in the light of the Gospel and the common good.
