Blog from the Capital

In a District Court, Minnesota pastor Mac Hammond - who has previously been the subject of this blog for being caught on video endorsing a congressional candidate from the pulpit - is fighting an unrelated IRS inquiry into his church's finances. He is raising church-state concerns as a defense against complying with a subpoena.

The church declined to comply with an IRS summons in March, arguing that the request was overly broad, and that the law states the request must come from a "high-ranking official" of the IRS. The U.S. attorney's office then sued to force compliance.
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The IRS is interested in compensation for Hammond and the details of a relationship in which the church bought a jet for the pastor and founder of Living Word, which he then leased back to the church at a profit. The deal was questioned by a Washington watchdog group.

The Star-Tribune article has an interesting quote from Judge Jeffrey Keyes, who is interested in Hammond's First Amendment argument. "It's an issue I could see moving a long way through the courts". We'll see. Stay tuned.