High Court Allows Lawsuit Over Education Tax Credit to Proceed

by Jim Brown
June 17, 2004

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(AgapePress) - The Supreme Court has ordered that lower courts must hear a case involving a legal challenge to Arizona's education tax credit program.

The high court ruling comes despite the Tax Injunction Act (TIA), which bars the federal government from interfering with state tax programs. In Arizona, the state Supreme Court has already approved a system that allows people to donate money to private tuition organizations and receive a tax credit in return.

Attorney Joshua Carden with the Alliance Defense Fund filed an amicus brief in the case, which will now be returned to the lower courts. "The principals of federalism still apply -- that is, you have to respect at some level the state court's ability to manage and handle their own tax systems," he says.

Carden notes that these principles are well established and entrenched in American law and precedent and have been around since the Supreme Court has existed. "And yet," he says, "the Supreme Court decided, 'No,' the lawsuit can go forward in federal court.'"

At issue in the case is whether the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution prevents a state from supporting private education. According to Carden, this portion of the amendment does not prohibit such support from coming from the state.

In fact, the ADF attorney insists, "The Establishment Clause in no way prevents states from being creative with how they want to educate the children in that state. And just because some of the people choose to give their money to organizations where some of that money ends up in religious schools, certainly it doesn't mean the state has somehow endorsed or established religion."

The Supreme Court decision to allow the legal challenge to proceed was authored by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Carden says anytime the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in California is affirmed by Ginsburg, "you can bet that's not a really good sign." However, the good news about the high court ruling, he says, is that it will do little to upset the current line of Establishment Clause cases that allow for constitutional voucher or tax credit systems.