I could not any IRS rulings on retention elections per se, but for the prohibition to apply the election need not be contested and there need not be any political parties involved. There are revenue rulings (which are official IRS pronouncements), for example, involving school board elections. Thus, I would think it would apply here. Lloyd, what do you think?
The NYT article to which you link, however, speaks of a pastor organizing religious leaders and religious leaders, as you note, remain free to take positions in their individual capacity and can have their official positions listed "for identification purposes only". For anyone who would like further examples and discussion, here is a link to the IRS publication, Tax Guide for Churches and Religious Organizations, which spends several pages on the issue of political intervention.
----- Original Message ----- From: Doug Hess <douglasrhess@gmail.com> Date: Wednesday, November 3, 2010 7:32 am Subject: [EL] Iowa court election and church advocacy To: election-law@mailman.lls.edu
> Since I participate on this list in the digest format, this may have already been raised, but is it possible that the churches that were involved in the Iowa Supreme Court fight violated election laws? NOTE: the process is not a race between candidates but only a confirmation yes/no vote on retaining each judge. (See link below.) I assume that there are legal ways for pastors to get involved, of course, but is this kind of vote (not for a candidate so to speak, but to retain a judge) subject to prohibitions on electioneering by some nonprofits, including churches (e.g., putting their resources into asking for a yes or no on a specific judge, or using church time to raise money, etc.)?
Ellen P. Aprill John E. Anderson Professor of Tax Law Loyola Law School 919 Albany Street Los Angeles, California 90015 Telephone: 213.736.1157 Fax: 213,380.3769 Ellen.Aprill@lls.edu http://www.lls.edu/academics/faculty/aprill.html