Supreme Court takes up church-state case

[OKgrannie]

Supreme Court takes up church-state case - Yahoo! News

President Bush's faith-based initiative is a signature program of his administration. But not all Americans share the president's belief that the government should work in close partnership with religious organizations willing to perform nonreligious public services, like running homeless shelters or drug counseling programs.

Wednesday, the US Supreme Court takes up a case that examines to what extent those opponents have legal standing to file federal lawsuits alleging that the White House's faith-based initiative amounts to unconstitutional entanglement of church and state.

All Americans may not share the president's belief, but all Americans should be outraged at not having access to the courts to address government violations.

 

[jfuh]

Keep the state out of religion and religion out of state. Once you form "faith based initiatives" you cross that wall of separation and boom, no more religious freedom.

 

[Goobieman]

All Americans may not share the president's belief, but all Americans should be outraged at not having access to the courts to address government violations.

You have to have standing to take up a case. You can't sue unless you are 'damaged' and the court can create a remedy.

Never mind the fact that, if it wanted to, Congress could indeed deny access to the courts by removing their jurisdiction to hear these cases.

 

[OKgrannie]

You have to have standing to take up a case. You can't sue unless you are 'damaged' and the court can create a remedy.

Never mind the fact that, if it wanted to, Congress could indeed deny access to the courts by removing their jurisdiction to hear these cases.

From the news article, the normal rules about standing don't apply to the establishment clause.

"If you follow the normal rules that you have to be injured in some direct way before you can complain about what the government has done, the establishment clause would never get enforced in the courts, Lupu says. "The government would put up crèches and crosses and menorahs and would spend money on religion, and nobody could challenge it because nobody is hurt in obvious ways by those kinds of activities."

Exception allows taxpayers to sue Congress
Had the courts consistently enforced the rule on standing, establishment-clause cases filed by ordinary Americans would be rare to nonexistent. But in 1968 the Supreme Court carved out an exception that allows taxpayers to file establishment-clause lawsuits challenging congressional spending that benefits religion.

It is that 1968 exception that is at the center of Hein v. Freedom From Religion Foundation. The Hein in the case is Jay Hein, director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives."