Opening briefs were filed last week with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco in a lawsuit filed by atheist Michael Newdow and the Freedom From Religion Foundation against a centuries-old practice of giving ministers a “parsonage allowance” or tax exemption for their housing.

The Ninth Circuit will consider who gets to defend the federal and state statutes being challenged. A group of ministers represented by Pacific Justice Institute sought to intervene as defendants in the case, since they would be most directly affected by the outcome of the case.

A federal district judge in Sacramento ruled in December that the IRS and state tax collectors would adequately represent the ministers’ efforts to maintain their current exemptions, even though PJI attorneys pointed out that tax authorities have significant revenue to gain and nothing to lose if the atheists prevail. The IRS has also previously sought to limit the scope of the ministerial housing allowance. The Sacramento court dismissed PJI’s concerns about these conflicts of interest as being overly “cynical” toward the government.

http://www.pacificjustice.org/news/atheists%E2%80%99-suit-against-ministers%E2%80%99-housing-allowance-lands-federal-appeals-court