Politics, Taxes, and the Pulpit Provocative First Amendment Conflicts

In Politics, Taxes, and the Pulpit: Provocative First Amendment Conflicts , Nina J. Crimm and Laurence H. Winer examine the conflicts of religion, politics, and taxes that occur when houses of worship engage in electoral political speech. The authors analyze the issues involved when federal tax subsidies are granted to non-profit houses of worship. These subsidies, granted on the condition that houses of worship refrain from political campaign speech, result in multi-faceted constitutional tensions engendered among the fundamental values embodied in the First Amendment: free speech and free press, the free exercise of religion, and the avoidance of government establishment of religion. Crimm and Winer also explore the history of taxation of houses of worship, and conclude by offering several feasible legislative proposals for reform of the tax provisions.

Nina J. Crimm is Visiting Professor of Law and Visiting Scholar in Residence at the Arizona State University Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law and Professor of Law at St. John's University School of Law in New York. She is the author of numerous articles and books involving taxation and First Amendment issues relevant to non-profit organizations and philanthropy and writes a quarterly column, The Quarterly Commentator, for The Exempt Organization Tax Review.

Laurence H. Winer is Professor of Law and Faculty Fellow, Center for Law, Science, & Innovation at the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law at Arizona State University. Professor Winer is the Faculty Editor of Jurimetrics: The Journal of Law, Science, and Technology, and is a member of the First Amendment Advisory Council of the Media Institute in Washington, D.C., an independent, non-profit research foundation specializing in issues of media and communications policy.