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Fixing The Johnson Amendment Without Totally Destroying It, Benjamin Leff

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

The so-called Johnson Amendment is that portion of Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code that prohibits charities from "intervening" in electoral campaigns. The intervention has long been understood to include both contributing charitable funds to campaign coffers and communicating the charity's views about candidates' qualifications for office. The breadth of the Johnson Amendment potentially brings two important values into conflict: the government's interest in preventing tax-deductible contributions to be used for electoral purposes (called "nonsubvention") and the speech rights or interest of charities.

For many years, the IRS has taken the position that the Johnson Amendment's prohibition on electoral …