“It is unfortunate that these chronic litigants fail to see the invaluable community services provided by members of the clergy,” PJI president Brad Dacus said in 2009. “Ministers of many faiths are dependent on the housing allowance to supplement their meager salaries.”

A federal lawsuit filed by an atheist organization that could have stripped ministers of traditional housing-allowance tax exemptions was dropped after the group failed to state what kind of solution it was seeking.

On June 17, the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF), a Madison, Wis.-based group, filed a voluntary dismissal in the U.S. District Court in Sacramento, Calif. in a case that sought to end housing allowances for ministers in California.

Originally filed in 2009, the lawsuit pitted FFRF and 21 of its members against U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Douglas Shulman and California Franchise Tax Board Executive Selvi Stanlilaus and challenged, among other exemptions, federal and California statutes that allow ministers of the Gospel to exclude housing allowances from taxable income on home furnished to them as part of their compensation package.

The FFRF’s dismissed complaint focused on two sections of the U.S. income- tax code as well as concurrent California law. Section 107 exempts housing allowances from taxable income while Section 265(a)(6) permits ministers to claim deductions for interest and property taxes from income derived from the housing allowance.

In its complaint, the FFRF alleged the allowance violated the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment by supposedly providing a subsidy to ministers which would not be available to secular organizations and that the sections would allegedly result in “excessively entangling the government with religion because determinations whether the sections apply turn on religious criteria and inquiries.”

However, since the FFRF failed to actually seek a specific remedy for the alleged violation, legal experts say the group had no choice but to seek dismissal because it had never asked federal or state officials for a similar allowance for its employees.

“We are pleased that this case has been dismissed, but we have no illusions that the FFRF and its allies will abandon their attacks on the clergy, said Kevin Snider, chief counsel for the Pacific Justice Institute (PJI), in a released statement following the dismissal.

The PJI is a national legal defense organization “specializing in the defense of religious freedom, parental rights, and other civil liberties.” The group had earlier joined the lawsuit as a co-defendant.

“We will remain vigilant to protect the outstanding men and women who serve our faith communities, and we are prepared to counter any future court challenges of this nature,” he said.