Once More Into the Breach: The First Establishment Clause of the Roberts Court
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Mark Pelavin is the Associate Director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism. He is one of the Jewish community's leading legislative strategists, and one of its senior lobbyists. |
The Supreme Court has agreed to hear the first Establishment Clause case of the Roberts era, Hein v. Freedom from Religion Foundation.
It is a potentially far-reaching case. Although the case arises from a challenge to the President’s faith-based initiative, the Court will not be considering the constitutionality of the initiative. It will, rather, decide wheatear taxpayers have the ability to challenge the faith-based initiative, and other similar instances of government funding of religious institutions.
My friend Melissa Rogers, whose blog is becoming one of my most important daily reads, has this great summary of the case and the history of taxpayer challenges.
For the real hard-core among you, the Department of Justice’s brief asking the Supreme Court to hear the case is available here.
Comments
Thanks for the shout-out, Mark. I enjoy reading RAC Blog. Thanks to all of you for the great work you do. Hope to see you soon.
Posted by: Melissa Rogers | December 7, 2006 8:07 PM