MADISON, Wis. — The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) said it will monitor churches and other houses of worship for electioneering in a settlement reached with an atheist group.
The settlement was reached July 18 in federal court in Madison, Wis., where the initial lawsuit was filed in 2012 by the Freedom from Religion Foundation (FFRF), a Wisconsin-based atheist advocacy group.
The suit alleged the IRS routinely ignored complaints by the FFRF and others about churches promoting political candidates, issues or proposed legislation.
At the time the suit was filed the IRS maintained it was not ignoring complaints of electioneering, but had failed to hire an official to investigate church politicking, which it had been ordered to do in 2009 as the result of another lawsuit.
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