Minnesota nonprofit council opposes lifting political gag rule

A day after President Donald Trump vowed to repeal a 60-year-old gag on political activity by nonprofits including churches, the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits expressed strong opposition to a policy change that would allow charities to wade into electoral firefights.

At the National Prayer Breakfast, Trump vowed to "totally destroy" the 1954 Johnson Amendment, which expressly prohibits charities and foundations from participating in political campaigns on pain of losing their nonprofit tax exemption status.

"The Minnesota Council on Nonprofits believes this is a bad idea," said Rebecca Lucero, public policy director for the council, which has more than 2,100 nonprofit members including churches and religious groups.

"U.S. nonprofit organizations, which include religious organizations, are best able to advance their missions when they are nonpartisan," she said.

Nonprofits and churches can and do advocate for policies and issues that promote their mission and values at the State Capitol and in Washington, D.C., but they must stay out of elections, Lucero said.

Repealing the amendment could affect the work lives of thousands of Minnesotans. About 11.5 percent of the state's workers, or 311,000 people, are employed by nonprofits. Minnesota ranked ninth among the states for its share of nonprofit employment in recent years.

Minnesota churches, including the Minnesota Council of Churches, have largely opposed repealing the Johnson Amendment. But the Minnesota Family Council, a conservative Christian coalition active in anti-abortion politics, called Trump's proposal a "welcome change."

The Johnson Amendment was sponsored by U.S. Sen. Lyndon Johnson, the future president, and passed with little fanfare in 1954. This week, Republicans in Congress introduced bills to restrict enforcement of the amendment.

In recent years, the Alliance Defending Freedom based in Scottsdale, Ariz., has opposed the limitation that the Johnson Amendment places on charities and churches, which are nonprofits.

"Americans don't need a federal tax agency to be the speech police of churches or any other nonprofit groups, who have a constitutionally protected freedom to decide for themselves what they want to say or not say," said Erik Stanley, senior counsel for the Alliance, in a written statement.

"By removing the threat of an IRS investigation and potential penalties based simply, for example, on what a pastor says from the pulpit, this bill brings the law into conformity with the First Amendment."

Staff writer Jean Hopfensperger contributed to this story.