Barry Lynn, the head of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, has written the IRS calling attention to the recent endorsement of conservative Mike Huckabee by Jerry Falwell, Jr., the President of Liberty University. Lynn's letter is available in the BNA database.
The Falwell endorsement was on Liberty University letterhead, and accompanied by a very favorable piece in the university's journal about Huckabee's visit to the campus. Apparently, when Falwell introduced Huckabee for his presentation at the University, he announced that the success of Huckabee's candidacy " would be a God thing." See this statement in the Liberty Journal at the University journal's website. the Journal claims that "The University as a whole stopped short of endorsing Huckabee" even though he received Falwell's "personal" endorsement.
Lynn argues that this clearly violates the ban on candidate endorsements by organizations that have section 501(c)(3) tax exempt status. This case comes very close to the paradigmatic problem of endorsement, when a person who holds an office is so closely associated with the exempt organization that the person's endorsement is seen as an official endorsement. Falwell's use of university letterhead makes the case very strong that he has violated the rules on candidate endorsements.
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