Religion Clause blog reports today that the 7th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals heard oral arguments (audio of full arguments) yesterday in Freedom From Religion Foundation v. Lew, No. 14-1152. FFRF is challenging Section 107 of the Internal Revenue Code which allows "ministers of the gospel" to exempt from their income taxes income designated as a housing allowance. The exemption is just one more example of mythical equal justice under law and the government's favoritism of belief (and Christianity in particular) over non-belief.
The benefit can be quite substantial. For example, Rick Warren, pastor of Saddlebrook Church in California, has been able to exempt a Section 107 housing allowance of hundreds of thousands of dollars per year from his income tax liability -- just one more reason why every man, woman and child share of the nation debt is $55,000.
As an aside, I am jealous of FFRF because Michael Gompertz and Robert Baty requested that I take this case a number of years ago. FFRF beat me to the courthouse.
