Archdiocesan and USCCB Advisories re: “Political Campaign Activity Restrictions”

INTRODUCTION AND PURPOSE #

The USCCB Office of General Counsel is providing these guidelines to (arch)dioceses, parishes, and other Catholic organizations (“Catholic organizations”) to assist them in distinguishing activities that are permitted during election campaigns from activities that are prohibited. The guidelines also address the distinction between educational activity and lobbying under federal tax law. The latter is restricted but not prohibited.
The intended audience is Catholic organizations included in the USCCB group ruling that are exempt from federal income tax under section 501(a) of the Internal Revenue Code (“Code”) and described in section 501(c)(3). 1 State Catholic conferences that are separately incorporated as section 501(c)(3) organizations, structured as activities (rather than as separate legal entities) of one or more dioceses, or which are separately incorporated as section 501(c)(4) organizations but whose revenue is derived solely from assessments paid by constituent dioceses, are subject to the section 501(c)(3) rules. Therefore, the primary focus is on section 501(c)(3), which prohibits participation or intervention in a political campaign on behalf of or in opposition to any candidate.
General guidance cannot anticipate every conceivable fact pattern, nor can it substitute for the advice Catholic organizations should seek from their own attorneys. Because interpretation of the political campaign intervention prohibition is inherently fact-specific, it frequently presents close questions that should be resolved with the advice of diocesan legal counsel prior to engaging in potentially problematic activities.

POLITICAL CAMPAIGN ACTIVITY AND LOBBYING #

Political Campaign Activity #

Background and History
The Code provides that an organization described in section 501(c)(3) may not “participate in, or intervene in (including the publishing or distributing of statements), any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for public office.”
The provision prohibiting political campaign intervention was introduced by then-Senator Lyndon B. Johnson during Senate floor debate on the 1954 version of the tax code. LBJ appears to have been reacting to support provided by certain tax-exempt organizations to Dudley Dogherty, his challenger in the 1954 primary election. There is no legislative history to explain definitively why LBJ sought this amendment to the Code. However, there is no evidence that religious organizations were his targets.

Some courts have held that the prohibition against political campaign intervention, as well as the restriction on attempting to influence legislation, are conditions placed on the receipt of the benefits of federal tax exemption and qualification under section 501(c)(3), including the ability to receive tax-deductible charitable contributions (i.e., the “exemption as privilege” or “subsidy theory”).
Under this view, an organization can choose between engaging in political campaign intervention either as a taxable entity or as a tax-exempt secti