Hunton’s religious facilities finance team advises clients on the participation of qualified 501(c)(3) religious organizations in public benefit programs, including tax-exempt bond programs—a natural expansion of our broader public finance practice. We understand the scope of constitutional protections available and have the necessary experience with the finance laws and regulations affecting religious organizations of all faiths and beliefs.

With 50 years of experience addressing virtually every significant legal issue affecting governmental and tax-exempt financing for nonprofit corporations, our public finance team has served as bond counsel, borrower’s counsel, and underwriter’s counsel in tax-exempt financings for charter schools, private religious schools, private colleges, hospitals, retirement facilities, and other 501(c)(3) organizations in transactions across the US. Our team has represented clients in financings involving a broad range of tax-exempt and taxable obligations, including financings for education, housing, airports, utilities, transportation, health care, and infrastructure for states and political subdivisions.

Over the last two decades, the US Supreme Court has interpreted the Establishment Clause and Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment in the context of government incentives, entitlements, and funding programs involving religious institutions. These constitutional protections, as applied to state and local governments through the Fourteenth Amendment, have been clarified through a series of decisions affirming the rights of religious organizations to participate in generally available public benefit programs without discrimination. The decisions provide an important legal foundation for qualified religious organizations to access public financing programs, including the federal tax-exempt bond market, on the same terms as similarly situated secular organizations.

Given our strong public finance background, practical knowledge, and this constitutional foundation for the inclusion of religious organizations in public benefit programs, we counsel qualified 501(c)(3) religious institutions, their affiliates, other faith-based organizations, and governmental entities with respect to financings, tax opinions, revenue bonds, and tax-exempt bond programs related to religious facilities.