Author Topic: Parish (Parsonage) Exemption declared unconstitutional in US District Court  (Read 2495 times)

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Offline Stormwarden

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http://aattp.org/u-s-district-court-judge-rules-religious-tax-exemption-unconstitutional/

Well, to sum it up, a US District Court Judge named Barbara C. Crabb ruled the law (seen here: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/26/107 ) was unconstitutional according to the Establishment Clause of the US Constitution. The law was passed in 1954 during the McCarthy era as to do otherwise would have been political suicide. There's a very real possibility the Supreme Court will want to review this.

Looks like I'm gonna need a lot more popcorn, or headache medicine...

Oh hell, why not both? Popcorn for the show, and aspirin for the clusterfuck to follow.


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Offline Witchyjoshy

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Another step towards secular victory.
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Offline clockworkgirl21

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This should have happened much earlier.

Offline RavynousHunter

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This should have happened much earlier.

Perhaps, but if it succeeds at all, I'll be plenty happy enough.  The tears of impotent neo-con rage will be extra-delicious with this added into the mix.
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Offline Meshakhad

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I'm OK with this, as long as religious organizations can still get charity status if they actually qualify. If the Supreme Court upholds the ruling, I imagine most religious organizations will. The big losers here are megachurches and Scientology.
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Offline Raymond Dullaghy

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I'm OK with this, as long as religious organizations can still get charity status if they actually qualify. If the Supreme Court upholds the ruling, I imagine most religious organizations will. The big losers here are megachurches and Scientology.
I appreciate the sentiment, but the odds of that happening might be slim. Politicized megachurches--and their parishioners--could probably lobby their way back into charity status.
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Offline Meshakhad

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I'm OK with this, as long as religious organizations can still get charity status if they actually qualify. If the Supreme Court upholds the ruling, I imagine most religious organizations will. The big losers here are megachurches and Scientology.
I appreciate the sentiment, but the odds of that happening might be slim. Politicized megachurches--and their parishioners--could probably lobby their way back into charity status.

Some of them, probably.
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Offline Canadian Mojo

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Does this actually mean much of anything in practical terms?

Just because you can tax a church doesn't mean anybody is actually going to.

Offline JohnE

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If I'm understanding the article right, this doesn't affect the tax exempt status of churches, only the tax exempt status of houses given to clergy by churches.