{"id":79392,"date":"2019-03-18T12:11:50","date_gmt":"2019-03-18T16:11:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=79392"},"modified":"2019-03-18T20:14:11","modified_gmt":"2019-03-19T00:14:11","slug":"ct-seventh-circuit-rules-clergy-housing-allowance-is-constitutional","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=79392","title":{"rendered":"(CT) Seventh Circuit rules Clergy Housing Allowance is constitutional"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text\">The October 2017 decision by Wisconsin district judge Judge Barbara Crabb had been a victory for the Freedom from Religion Foundation (FFRF), which \u201cjeopardized the benefit for clergy in Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin \u2026 and many predicted similar consequences nationwide,\u201d wrote CT\u2019s sister publication, <em>Church Law &amp; Tax<\/em>(CLT) in an <a class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.churchlawandtax.com\/blog\/2019\/march\/seventh-circuit-clergy-housing-allowance-is-constitutional.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">analysis<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text\">In today\u2019s <a class=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/media.ca7.uscourts.gov\/cgi-bin\/rssExec.pl?Submit=Display&amp;Path=Y2019\/D03-15\/C:18-1280:J:Brennan:aut:T:fnOp:N:2309033:S:0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">ruling<\/a>, a panel of three judges again refuted the claims of FFRF attorneys, deciding that the allowance passes muster according to two related Supreme Court rulings, <em>Town of Greece v. Galloway<\/em> and <em>Lemon v. Kurtzman<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text\">\u201cFFRF claims Section 107(2) renders unto God that which is Caesar\u2019s,\u201d wrote circuit judge Michael Brennan. \u201cBut this tax provision falls into the play between the joints of the Free Exercise Clause and the Establishment Clause: neither commanded by the former, nor proscribed by the latter.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text\">The FFRF <a class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/sbauerAP\/status\/1106650159562280960\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">told<\/a> the Associated Press it is reviewing its options.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text\">CT previously reported how the FFRF challenged the same tax break in 2012 with the same <a class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/news\/2012\/september\/judge-revives-atheist-challenge-to-clergy-housing-allowance.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">initial success<\/a>, but ultimately <a class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/news\/2014\/november\/good-news-pastors-court-overturns-atheist-housing-allowance.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">lost on appeal<\/a> in November 2014. Today\u2019s ruling was essentially a rematch over whether the tax benefit unfairly benefits religious Americans.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text\">\u201cThis ruling is a victory not just for my church but for the needy South Side Chicago community we serve,\u201d said Chicago Embassy Church pastor Chris Butler in a Becket press release. He intervened in the case because his church \u201ccan\u2019t afford to pay him a full salary, but it offers him a small housing allowance, so he can afford to live near his church and the community he serves,\u201d <a class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.becketlaw.org\/media\/court-protects-ministers-1b-tax-lawsuit\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">noted<\/a> Becket, which represented a group of pastors appealing the FFRF\u2019s initial victory.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/news\/2019\/march\/clergy-housing-allowance-seventh-circuit-ffrf-constitutiona.html\">Read it all<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The October 2017 decision by Wisconsin district judge Judge Barbara Crabb had been a victory for the Freedom from Religion Foundation (FFRF), which \u201cjeopardized the benefit for clergy in Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin \u2026 and many predicted similar consequences nationwide,\u201d<span class=\"ellipsis\">&hellip;<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"read-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=79392\">Read more &#8250;<\/a><\/div>\n<p><!-- end of .read-more --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":794,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[168,114,435,108,441,587],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-79392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ethics-moral-theology","category-law-legal-issues","category-ministry-of-the-ordained","category-religion-culture","category-stewardship","category-taxes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/794"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=79392"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79392\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79394,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79392\/revisions\/79394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=79392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=79392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=79392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}