Focus on the Family Supports Bill Restoring Churches and Non-Profits’ Free Speech Rights

by Emily Washburn | April 1, 2025 | Free Speech Religious Freedom

Focus on the Family is one of sixteen organizations supporting the Free Speech Fairness Act, a bill that would restore the free speech rights of churches and non-profits.

Under Internal Revenue Code 501(c)(3), tax-exempt charitable organizations like non-profits and churches cannot contribute to political campaigns or support or oppose political candidates.

Organizations that violate these rules risk losing their tax-exempt status.

The Free Speech Fairness Act would loosen these rules, allowing 501(c)(3)s to comment on political candidates and campaigns, provided the statements are:

  • In-step with the organization’s tax-exempt purpose and
  • Incur insignificant expenses.

Representative Mark Harris (NC) and Senator James Lankford (OK) filed the Free Speech Fairness Act in both chambers of Congress Monday. If passed, Harris and Lankford say it would correct the tax code’s infringement on the free speech rights of pastors and non-profit employees.

“People of faith should not fear exercising their First Amendment rights at the risk of the IRS coming after them,” Harris wrote in yesterday’s press release, continuing,

For too long, the Johnson Amendment has silenced pastors, churches and non-profits from engaging on moral and political issues of our day for fear of losing their tax-exempt status.

The Johnson Amendment is the language limiting 501(c)(3) organizations’ political participation. The original amendment, which Congress passed in 1954, prevented tax-exempt charities from engaging in political campaigns. In 1987, Congress added language clarifying that 501(c)(3)s could not oppose political candidates.

Politicians and charitable organizations have been trying to roll-back the Johnson Amendment for the better part of two decades.

In 2017, President Donald Trump signed an executive order stopping the Department of Justice from enforcing the amendment. In 2021, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise introduced the Free Speech Fairness Act to Congress for the first time.

Two decades earlier, in 2000, a 501(c)(3) appealed to the judicial branch for relief. Branch Ministries, in Branch Ministries v. Rossotti, argued the Johnson Amendment infringed on its right to free speech, amounting to “selective persecution because of its conservative views.”

The District Court for the District of Columbia ruled against Branch, finding, “The government has a compelling interest in maintaining the integrity of the tax system and in not subsidizing partisan political activity.”

Importantly, the Free Speech Fairness Act does not conflict with the court’s ruling in Branch Ministries, because it only sanctions political comments and statements that cost little to nothing.

Regardless, the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), which joined Focus on the Family in support of the bill, says there’s legal grounds to repeal the Johnson Amendment. Senior Counsel Matt Sharp writes:

The government can’t base any tax exemption on a requirement that a church or any other non-profit organization self-censor and surrender its constitutionally protected freedom.
ADF commends Representative Harris and Senator Lankford for introducing the Free Speech Fairness Act to ensure that religious entities can apply teachings to all areas of life without fearing an IRS investigation and fines.
Anything to the contrary would be a gross violation of the First Amendment.

Families and believers trying to navigate our confusing culture would be the biggest beneficiary of the Free Speech Fairness Act. That’s why Focus on the Family is so excited to support it.

We hope you and your family will join us.