Charity Governance

"WERE [SIC] AN EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION:" SHOULD THE IRS REVOKE LIBERTY UNIVERSITY’S TAX-EXEMPT STATUS?

DATELINE: May 24, 2009, Chicago

Well, well, well.  Everyone seems to wait for Memorial Day weekend to release explosive news.  North Korea literally set off a nuclear explosion in an underground test.  Now Liberty University has detonated its own bombshell.  It has decided that a student Democratic club will no longer be officially recognized as a university club. The club still will be permitted to meet on campus, but it no longer will be eligible for university funding and it can no longer use the university name, according to a May 25, 2009 press release from Jerry Falwell, Jr., the university’s Chancellor and President.  The Democratic club received an e-mail announcing the decision on May 15, 2009.  Anita Kumar, Liberty U. Drops Democratic Club: Party's Views Conflicts with Those of College, Administrators Say, Washington Post (May 23, 2009).

Unfortunately the press release does not discuss the status of the university’s Republican club, but we will assume for purposes of this post that there is one and that it continues to be recognized as an official club.  This assumption is supported by a report by an ABC News affiliate that the Republican club's status is untouched.  Jeremy Mills, University Rejects LU Democrat Club, ABC News--WSET-TV (May 22, 2009).  If Chancellor Falwell would like to challenge this assumption, he should issue a press release that lays all the salient facts out.  

Not surprisingly, there already is speculation whether the IRS will...

FREEDOM FROM RELIGION FOUNDATION WAS STANDING ON SHAKEY GROUND WHEN IT CHALLENGED PRESIDENT BUSH’S FAITH-BASED INITIATIVE, ACCORDING TO A MAJORITY OF THE SUPREME COURT: IS VP CHENEY THE ANSWER?

DATELINE: June 26, 2007, Chicago

We have been following the lawsuit brought by the Madison, Wisconsin-based Freedom of Religion Foundation against the Bush Administration.  They challenged expenditures by the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives on expenditures of federal funds on training designed to assist faith-based organizations in obtaining federal-grant money, arguing that from an atheist’s point of view, this constituted a violation of the Establishment Clause of the United States Constitution.  For all we know, the folks at the Freedom From Religion Foundation are correct. Unfortunately for them, they lack...

EARMARKS TO FAITH-BASED GROUPS: NO ACCOUNTABILITY

DATELINE: June 13, 2007, Chicago

Donna  B. Henriques and Andrew W. Lehren are reporting in today’s New York Times that two earmarks to a faith-based group went awry.  Their article—U.S. Grants Winds Up as 2 Ships Gone Awry—demonstrates once again why grants, particularly earmarked ones, to faith-based groups pose serious issues.

Back in 1999, the United States Coast Guard needed to dispose of two decommissioned ships.  Rather than following the normal auction procedure, the Coast Guard ended up transferring the two ships to a faith-based charity that was supposed to use them to provide medical services to islands located in the South Pacific.  Henruiqes and Lehren report that Coast Guard records indicate that those services...

TAX-EXEMPT FINANCING FOR CALIFORNIA PAROCHIAL SCHOOLS: STATE SUPREME COURT SAYS BOND FINANCING IS GOLDEN

Dateline, March 6, 2007, Chicago

A closely divided California Supreme Court ruled yesterday that  a public entity could use its authority to issue tax-exempt bonds to raise funds to assist religiously affiliated schools that devote a substantial portion of their functions to religious mission.  California Statewide Communities Development Authority v. All Persons Interested in the Matter of the Validity of a Purchase Agreement, S124195 (March 5, 2007).  The court held that the bond financing program survived constitional challenge under both the California and United States constitutions.  California may be the source of all things liberal in the views of some, but its supreme court just handed the religious right a major victory.  What is significant about this decision is the fact that the schools in question were...

CAN BUSH ADMINISTATION OFFICIALS PROCLAIM THE GLORY OF GOD AT WHITE HOUSE CONFERENCES? WE SHALL KNOW SOON

Dateline: December 6, 2006, Chicago

We only need to look to Iraq to see what happens when people mix religion and politics.  Unfortunately, the Bush Administration hasn’t seemed to learn the lesson from its failed efforts to build a democratic society in a locale that wants religious supremacy reflected in its government institutions.  Therefore, it should come as no surprise that the Bush Administration is trying to do the same thing in the...

WE WILL BE BRIEFER THAN THE DISTRICT COURT: FAITH-BASED PROGRAMS CANNOT USE GOVERNMENT MONEY TO PREACH AND IT WILL COST THEM MONEY IF THEY DO

On June 2, 2006, Chief Judge Robert W. Pratt of the Southern District Court of Iowa signed an opinion and order requiring the Prison Fellowship Ministries, operating through a subsidiary named InnerChange Freedom Initiative, to return at least $1,529,182.70 in contract money that they received from the Iowa Department of Corrections since 1999.  See Americans United for Separation of Church and State v. Prison Fellowship Ministries, et al (S. D. Iowa 2006).  The judge immediately stayed his order, recognizing that an appeal of his decision is likely.  We would be shocked...

BETWEEN A ROCK AND A HARD PLACE: STATE OF WISCONSIN SUED BY FAITH-BASED GROUPS THAT WERE DENIED ACCESS TO STATE EMPLOYEE CHARITABLE CAMPAIGN

President Bush’s faith-based initiative sought to level the playing field for faith-based organizations that provide social services.  It may have achieved some of its goals, but it has also sparked a debate as to the proper distance that should exist between religious organizations and the government.  One thing is very clear:  President Bush’s emphasis has generated a lot of business for...

SEVENTH CIRCUIT GRANTS STANDING TO CHALLENGE PRESIDENT BUSH’S EDUCATION EFFORTS FOR FAITH-BASED ORGANIZATIONS SEEKING FEDERAL GRANTS

On Friday, January 13, 2006, Judge Posner wrote an opinion for the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals that outlines the rules regarding taxpayer standing to challenge acts that the taxpayer believes violate the establishment clause in the First Amendment.  See Freedom from Religion Foundation v. Elaine L. Chao, Secretary of Department of Labor, No. 05-1130.   The specific question before Judge Posner was whether Congress....