After the establishment of President Bush's faith-based initiative program in 2002, the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies recently conducted a survey of over 700 black churches, concluding that black churches have only been minimally affected. This is detrimental to a vital and successful source of social service programs, especially in the northeast. However, despite some political concern that churches which ideologically support Bush would overwhelmingly be helped, liberal churches were more likely to apply for the grants.

As primary elections are taking place today in nine states including the District of Columbia, voters should pay heed to the various voter identification efforts throughout the country. The LA Times today put out a very helpful and comprehensive story on these cases. The dispute, which is being fought in disparate and often half-empty courtrooms in as many as nine states, concerns new state laws and rules backed primarily by Republicans that require people to show photo identification in order to vote and, in some cases, proof of citizenship and identification when registering to vote.

Yesterday a federal judge in Oregon ruled that national security would not be threatened with the advancement of a lawsuit that challenges the well known Terrorist Surveillance Program. Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation, a charity based in Oregon that distributed religious literature to prison inmates, filed a lawsuit in February claiming that the National Security Administration listened to telephone conversations in 2004 between the group's director in Saudi Arabia and his U.S. lawyers. Judge Garr M.

With the 2006 election just around the corner, the IRS has scheduled two free conference calls for tax exempt organizations on September 19th and 20th to discuss the electoral activity of 501(c)(3) organizations. The IRS invites tax professionals and representatives of tax exempt organizations to participate in a Phone Forum on Election Involvement by IRC section 501(c)(3) Organizations (including churches). The seminar provides an overview of the political intervention rules for these organizations.