Feb 20, 2026 · policy_change
IRS stops enforcing Johnson Amendment, allowing church political endorsements
The IRS under the Trump administration effectively stopped enforcing the Johnson Amendment by July 2025, entering a consent agreement allowing specific churches to endorse political candidates without losing tax-exempt status. The Johnson Amendment was enacted in 1954 by then-Sen. Lyndon Johnson to bar 501(c)(3) nonprofits from campaigning for political candidates. Trump had issued an executive order in 2017 directing lenient enforcement. The Treasury Department announced in April 2026 it would issue formal guidance permitting religious organizations to make candidate endorsements.
Jan 21, 2025 · executive
Trump revokes Johnson-era contractor affirmative action order
President Donald Trump signs Executive Order 14173, “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity,” on January 21, 2025. The order revokes Executive Order 11246, the 1965 Johnson administration order that required federal contractors to follow equal employment opportunity rules and affirmative action obligations.\n\nThe order tells the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs to stop promoting diversity, stop holding contractors responsible for affirmative action, and stop allowing workforce balancing based on race, color, sex, sexual preference, religion, or national origin. It also requires federal contracts and grants to include terms saying compliance with anti-discrimination law is material to payment decisions.\n\nThe event belongs in the racism timeline because it changes a major enforcement structure created during the civil rights era to address exclusion in federally connected employment. The administration frames the order as a move against race- and sex-based preferences, while civil rights and labor advocates describe the rollback as weakening tools used to detect and remedy systemic discrimination.
Jan 20, 2025 · executive_order
Trump Signs EO 14173 Ending DEI Requirements for Federal Contractors
President Trump signed Executive Order 14173 on Inauguration Day, January 20, 2025, directing all federal agencies to terminate DEI offices, programs, and contractor requirements within 90 days. The order reversed President Johnson's 1965 Executive Order 11246, which had required federal contractors to take affirmative action, and directed the Department of Justice to identify "illegal DEI" practices for enforcement. Contractors were required to certify compliance with the anti-DEI policy or face contract termination and False Claims Act liability.
Mar 5, 1970 · treaty
Iran Ratifies the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty
Iran formally ratified the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty on March 5, 1970, the same day the treaty entered into force internationally. As a non-nuclear-weapon state signatory, Iran accepted IAEA safeguards and committed not to develop nuclear weapons. Article IV of the treaty simultaneously guaranteed Iran an inalienable right to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes — the same clause Tehran would cite more than five decades later to resist U.S. demands during ceasefire negotiations.
Oct 22, 1968 · legislation
LBJ Signs Gun Control Act of 1968, Expanding ATF Firearms Jurisdiction
President Johnson signed the Gun Control Act of 1968 on October 22, 1968, in direct response to the assassinations of Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. earlier that year. The law banned mail-order handgun sales (closing the loophole Lee Harvey Oswald had used), required federal firearms licenses for dealers, prohibited sales to convicted felons and minors, and gave the ATF — then still within Treasury — jurisdiction over all federal firearms laws. The GCA established the regulatory framework that governs firearms commerce to this day.
