On Friday a federal judge in Wisconsin dismissed the Freedom from Religion Foundation's (FFRF) attempt to use the Internal Revenue Service as a weapon to censor houses of worship that preach on moral issues having political implications.
After almost two years of litigation, FFRF asked the court to dismiss its own lawsuit once the Becket Fund stepped in to defend the rights of a small Wisconsin church and its pastor. FFRF had relied on the so-called Johnson Amendment, a law that politicians use to restrict what some private groups can say about them, and which—by an accident of history—caught houses of worship in its web when it was passed 60 years ago.
"This lawsuit was a bad idea from the beginning. Who thinks the IRS should be deciding what a preacher says in a sermon?" said Daniel Blomberg, legal counsel for the Becket Fund.
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