Clergy Act

Enumerated powers · passes

Congress acts within Article I, Section 8, Clause 1, the power to lay and collect taxes and provide for the general welfare, and Article I, Section 8, Clause 18, the Necessary and Proper Clause to administer the Social Security tax framework. Adjusting eligibility to revoke a ministerial exemption and directing notice are plainly within administration of federal taxes Congress created.

Bill of Rights · passes

No speech, religion, press, assembly, arms, search, trial, or other First through Tenth Amendment right is infringed. The bill expands religious liberty by allowing clergy with conscientious objections to reconsider a prior irrevocable exemption. It coerces no belief or worship, imposes no search under the Fourth Amendment, and takes no property under the Fifth Amendment. First Amendment Free Exercise is supported, not burdened.

Individual liberty · passes

Individual sovereignty is enlarged. Clergy and practitioners gain an option to enter Social Security and Medicare on ministerial earnings after previously making an irrevocable religious exemption. The government bears no coercive burden here: no labor is compelled, no belief is punished, no speech is limited, and property in the form of future benefits and present taxes follows the person's own choice.

Decentralization · passes

Social Security and Medicare are existing federal programs under Article I, Section 8, Clause 1. This bill creates no new federal regulatory subject and moves no decision upward. Individuals decide whether to revoke, local bodies lose nothing, and states lose nothing. The federal notice plan is ministerial and tied to a federal tax system that only Congress can alter, so the minimum necessary level remains federal for this narrow fix.

Due process and takings · passes

No person is deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process under the Fifth Amendment, and no property is taken for public use without just compensation. Participation change is voluntary with notice and a two-year election period. Procedural due process is satisfied through IRS notice and an affirmative election, and substantive action is non-arbitrary.