SAN FRANCISCO -- A federal court has thrown out a challenge to a long-standing benefit that exempts clergy from paying taxes on the money they spend on housing. The tax break still faces a challenge, though, as a law professor vows to file a lawsuit claiming the benefit is unconstitutional, according to the Associated Baptist Press.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco dismissed a high-profile case Aug. 26 that pitted Saddleback Church pastor Rick Warren against the Internal Revenue Service.
Warren sued the IRS after it turned down his $80,000 claim as a housing allowance. The IRS said the tax code allows deduction of only the fair-market rental value of a minister's home. Warren argued that it exempts all costs related to clergy housing.
The case took on added importance when a three-judge panel hearing the case took it upon itself to decide whether the entire notion of the housing allowance violates the Constitution by subsidizing religion. The case was dismissed in August.
Erwin Chemerinsky, a professor at the University of Southern California Law School, had prepared a "friend of the court" brief on the legality of the practice.
Chemerinsky, who claimed the tax break was unconstitutional, now plans to challenge the ministerial tax exemption on his own. Chemerinsky didn't say when he would file suit.
