Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/404/561/
Timestamp: 2019-04-19 00:25:50+00:00

Document:
Justia › US Law › US Case Law › US Supreme Court › Volume 404 › United States v. Christian Echoes Ministry, Inc.
Appellee, a nonprofit religious corporation, brought this refund suit, claiming that it was entitled to tax exempt status under § 501(c)(3) of the 1954 Internal Revenue Code. The District Court held that, under the facts adduced at trial, appellee qualified for exemption. It went on, however, to conclude that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), in revoking that exemption, violated (1) free exercise requirements by analyzing each activity of appellee and classifying it as "religious" or "political," and (2) due process requirements by singling appellee out, among all other religious organizations, for investigation and exemption revocation without supporting evidence.
Held: This Court has no jurisdiction to entertain the direct appeal that the Government seeks to take under 28 U.S.C. § 1252 from the District Court's decision, which did not hold § 501(c)(3) unconstitutional as a whole or as applied, but was merely directed at the method and means by which the IRS enforced § 501(c)(3) in this case.
and which does not participate in, or intervene in (including the publishing or distributing of statements), any political campaign on behalf of any candidate for public office."
"[w]ith the exception of support of the proposed Becker Amendment to the United States Constitution relating to voluntary prayer and Bible reading in public schools, [the appellee] has not engaged in attempts to influence legislation,"
and (3) that the appellee "has not endorsed a political candidate, and has not instructed its followers as to how to vote, but only to vote." On the basis of its findings of fact, the court concluded as law that the appellee fell within the terms of § 501(c)(3). That ended the case. But the District Court nonetheless went on to discuss certain constitutional issues.
In its conclusions of law, the court stated that the First Amendment prohibits both the Government and the courts from determining whether a religious organization is operated for exclusively religious purposes, and is thus eligible for tax exempt status, by analyzing each and every activity of the organization and classifying it as "religious" or "political." In this case, the court said, the Internal Revenue Service conducted and relied upon such an analysis in revoking the appellee's exemption, and, for that reason, the Service denied the free exercise of religion to the appellee. The District Court also stated that the Internal Revenue Service violated the appellee's right to due process of law by singling it out, among all other religious organizations, for investigation and exemption revocation "without evidence to support its action."
"any court of the United States . . . holding an Act of Congress unconstitutional in any civil action, suit, or proceeding to which the United States . . . is a party."
Such a direct appeal is allowed whether the Act of Congress was declared unconstitutional "as a whole" or simply "as applied." Fleming v. Rhodes, 331 U. S. 100, 331 U. S. 102-103. The findings and conclusions of the District Court in the present case, however, reveal that it did not hold § 501(c)(3) unconstitutional in either of these ways. Hence, we must dismiss this appeal for want of jurisdiction.
a whole." Nor does any part of its opinion hold that the section was unconstitutional "as applied." Indeed, the court in this case would hardly have found the appellee to be qualified for an exemption under § 501(c)(3) only to hold that the section could not be validly applied in the first place.
The District Court's commentary on the denial of due process to the appellee was directed simply to the method by which § 501(c)(3) was enforced [Footnote 2] -- not to its basic applicability. The court held that the Internal Revenue Service may not discriminate in applying the section. This holding restricts freewheeling enforcement, and may make it more difficult to revoke certain tax exemptions. But it does not call into question the validity of the underlying statute. Under § 1252, direct appeal to the Supreme Court is authorized only in the latter situation.
based on a constitutional premise, it did not amount to a holding that an Act of Congress is unconstitutional, as contemplated by § 1252. To the contrary, the District Court construed the section so as to save its constitutionality.
The judgment is vacated, and the case remanded to the District Court for the entry of a fresh decree, so that the appellant may appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit.
The findings of fact and conclusion of law of the District Court in this case, entered on June 24, 1971, are not officially reported.
"43. [The appellant] has characterized certain of [the appellee's] activities during the years involved in this suit as urging the public to contact members of legislative bodies for the purpose of proposing, supporting or opposing legislation. [The appellee] has characterized the same activities as taking stands on issues of the day concerning matters which it construes to threaten its religious beliefs. The Court finds that these activities have resulted from [the appellee's] religious beliefs, and were merely incidental to the exercise of its religion and the expression and dissemination of its understanding of biblical concepts. The Court further finds that any such activities by [the appellee] were insubstantial in relationship to the totality of [the appellee's] activities."
"44. [The appellant], in describing and characterizing [the appellee's] activities as political and non-religious, has, in fact, indicated a disagreement with the content and nature of what [the appellee] has said and written. [The appellant] has thereby sponsored its own definitions of 'religion' and 'religious.' Such definitions by [the appellant] are impermissable [sic]. . . ."
"45. [The appellee's] expression of opinion on 'current issues or issues of the day' is not an act contemplated by prohibition against intervention in political campaigns or legislation, and is not a violation of the provisions of Internal Revenue Code."
A similar distinction has been drawn in the context of the three-judge district court statute, 28 U.S.C. § 2281.
"It is necessary to distinguish between a petition for injunction on the ground of the unconstitutionality of a statute as applied, which requires a three-judge court, and a petition which seeks an injunction on the ground of the unconstitutionality of the result obtained by the use of a statute which is not attacked as unconstitutional. The latter petition does not require a three-judge court. In such a case, the attack is aimed at an allegedly erroneous administrative action."
Ex parte Branford, 310 U. S. 354, 310 U. S. 361.

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