Church Political Activity Disclosure OKd

In a defeat for churches and religious leaders, the Supreme Court Monday refused to tamper with a strict Tennessee law that requires all politically active groups, including religious organizations, to disclose their role in campaigns involving public issues.

Without dissent, the high court ruled against 13 churches in Tennessee and several national religious groups that said Tennessee violated the First Amendment by labeling churches as political organizations and forcing them to disclose their activities.

In 1984, the 13 churches in Jackson, Tenn., took out newspaper ads and distributed leaflets in a city referendum on permitting liquor sales in restaurants, urging defeat of the measure, which did lose at the polls. Church officials said that this was a “moral issue, not a political one,” and they resisted a state attorney’s order to register as “political campaign committees.”

The 1980 Tennessee Financial Disclosure Act required organizations participating in political campaigns to disclose how they raised money for their political activities and how they spent it. The Tennessee Supreme Court ruled last year that the law applied to the 13 churches because the people have a fundamental “right to know” who is supporting political causes and campaigns.

Appeal Dismissed

The churches, joined by the national religious groups in their appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, called this ruling a clear violation of the freedom of religion clause of the First Amendment. But their appeal (Bemis Pentecostal Church vs. Tennessee, 87-317) was dismissed Monday.

In other actions, the court:

--Ruled unanimously that bankrupt family farmers may not avoid foreclosure by inflating the worth of their holdings by calculating in the value of their labor and expertise. In an 8-0 vote, the court said that the plight of family farmers may not be resolved by altering the traditional bankruptcy laws. The ruling overturns an appeals court decision (Norwest Bank vs. Ahler, 86-958) that seemed to offer new hope to farmers facing foreclosure.

Shutting Down Bookstores

--Agreed to decide whether states may use anti-racketeering laws to shut down adult bookstores (Ft. Wayne Books vs. Indiana, 87-470). Under an Indiana law upheld by that state’s highest court, police officers seized books in several stores and then moved to close the stores down as part of an organized crime conspiracy without proving that the books in question were obscene.

--Agreed to decide who must prove their allegations in sex discrimination in employment cases: the company or the female plaintiff (Price Waterhouse vs. Hopkins, 87-1168). Price Waterhouse, one of the nation’s largest accounting firms, was accused of discriminating against a female employee who was turned down for a partnership with the advice that she should take “a course at charm school.” She won a lower court ruling that the company contends places an unfair burden of proof on it to show that her treatment was entirely fair.

These cases will be heard by the court next fall.