This page contains Supreme Court rulings -- with summaries of the majority and minority conclusions.
Decided Apr 4, 2011
Case Ruling: ARIZONA CHRISTIAN SCHOOL v. WINN
AZ law allows tax credits for contributions made to school tuition organizations (STOs). The STO then provides scholarships to students attending private schools, including religious schools. AZ taxpayers sued the state, challenging this law on Establishment [of religion] Clause grounds. HELD: Delivered by KENNEDY, joined by ROBERTS, SCALIA, THOMAS & ALITOThe plaintiff taxpayers lack standing to sue, because no case exists that a federal court may decide. The plaintiffs cannot show injury particularized to them, as opposed to any other taxpayer. The taxpayer-plaintiffs cannot prove that the AZ legislature raised their tax burden in order to provide this tax credit. Also, since the credit takes students out of the public schools, there is a cost savings to the State. Nor can the plaintiffs show that, if a court enjoined AZ from providing the tax credit to others, state legislators would use the increased revenue to lower the plaintiffs' tax burdens. To say that Arizonans benefiting from the
tax credit are paying their state taxes to an STO assumes that all income is government property even if it has not come into the tax collector's hands.CONCURRED: SCALIA concurs; joined by THOMASI concur in the judgment, but would repudiate the Court's anomalous Flast v. Cohen precedent that allowed a taxpayer lawsuit to proceed. It is irreconcilable with the Court's other decisions on cases or controversies suitable for the federal courts under Article III.DISSENT: KAGAN dissents; joined by GINSBURG, BREYER & SOTOMAYORTax credits can achieve the same result of supporting a religion as do payments from the treasury, and no principled distinction exists between them. Sometimes no one but a taxpayer has requisite standing to challenge government support of religion under the Establishment Clause.
Participating counts on VoteMatch question 4.
Question 4: Keep God in the public sphere
Scores: -2=Strongly oppose; -1=Oppose; 0=neutral; 1=Support; 2=Strongly support.
- Topic: Education
- Headline: Taxpayers can't fight AZ tax credit for religious schools
(Score: 2)
- Headline 2: Paying taxes insufficient to oppose religious or any credits
(Score: 1)
- Headline 3: Paying taxes sufficient to oppose religious tax credits
(Score: -2)
Participating counts on AmericansElect question 6.
- Headline: Taxpayers can't fight AZ tax credit for religious schools
(Answer: A)
- Headline 2: Paying taxes insufficient to oppose religious or any credits
(Answer: B)
- Headline 3: Paying taxes sufficient to oppose religious tax credits
(Answer: D)
- AmericansElect Quiz Question 6 on
Education:
When you think about education in the US, which of the following is closest to your opinion?
- A: School curriculums should be set entirely at a local school board level
- B: School curriculums should be set more by local school boards than at a national level
- C: School curriculums should be set more by national standards than at a local level
- D: School curriculums should be set entirely at a national standardized level
- E: Unsure
- Key for participation codes:
- Sponsorships: p=sponsored; o=co-sponsored; s=signed
- Memberships: c=chair; m=member; e=endorsed; f=profiled; s=scored
- Resolutions: i=introduced; w=wrote; a=adopted
- Cases: w=wrote; j=joined; d=dissented; c=concurred
- Surveys: '+' supports; '-' opposes.
Independents
participating in 11-AZ-WINN |
Total recorded by OnTheIssues:
Democrats:
4
Republicans:
5
Independents:
0 |
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