Challenge set for pulpit endorsement ban

CHICAGO, Sept. 8 (UPI) -- A conservative advocacy group plans to test a U.S. legal prohibition on clergy endorsing candidates from the pulpit, The Washington Post reported Monday.

The Alliance Defense Fund maintains that the ban is unconstitutional and plans to try to make its point by having several pastors violate the Internal Revenue Service rule Sept. 28, the newspaper said.

The organization, based in Arizona, intends to persuade the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the prohibition, which was imposed in a 1954 amendment to the Internal Revenue Code that bans non-profit, tax-exempt entities from participating or intervening in "any political campaign on behalf of any candidate for public office."

ADF attorney Erik Stanley told the Post: "It is the job of the pastors of America to debate the proper role of church in society. It's not for the government to mandate the role of church in society."

A group of Christian and Jewish clergy plans to petition the IRS Monday to head off the planned protest, calling it an assault on the rule of law, the Post said.