7th Circuit throws out attack on housing allowance for ministers

The following quote may be attributed to Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Legal Counsel Erik Stanley regarding the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit’s decision Thursday that threw out an attack on nontaxable housing assistance from churches to pastors in Lew v. Freedom From Religion Foundation:

“The government isn’t subsidizing something when its money is not even involved. That’s what the U.S. Supreme Court has determined in previous cases as recently as the ADF victory in ACSTO v. Winn in 2011. The atheists who filed this suit may have an axe to grind against religion, but as the 7th Circuit found, that doesn’t give them sufficient standing to challenge a tax benefit for which it has never applied and that has been provided to pastors for decades. The allowance many churches provide to pastors is church money, not government money. It is constitutional and should continue to be respected and protected.”