| Arizona Christian School Tuition Organization v. Winn | ||||||
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Supreme Court of the United States |
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| Argued November 3, 2010 Decided April 4, 2011 |
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| Full case name | Arizona Christian School Tuition Organization, Petitioner v. Kathleen M. Winn, et al.; Gale Garriott, Director, Arizona Department of Revenue, Petitioner v. Kathleen M. Winn, et al. | |||||
| Docket nos. | 09-987 09-991 |
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| Citations | U.S. [1] (more) 131 S. Ct. 1436 |
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| Prior history | Motion to dismiss granted, unreported (D. Ariz.); reversed sub nom. Winn v. Killian, 307 F.3d 1011 (9th Cir. 2002); rehearing denied sub nom. Hibbs v. Winn, 321 F.3d 911 (9th Cir. 2003); affirmed and remanded, 542 U.S. 88 (2004); dismissed on different ground, 361 F.Supp.2d 1117 (D. Ariz. 2005); reversed sub nom. Winn v. Arizona Christian School Tuition Organization, 562 F. 3d 1002 (9th Cir 2009); affirmed en banc, 586 F. 3d 649 (9th Cir 2009); certiorari granted, 560 U.S. ___, 130 S.Ct. 3324, 3350, 176 L.Ed.2d 1218 (2010) | |||||
| Argument | Oral argument | |||||
| Holding | ||||||
| 9th Circuit Reversed | ||||||
| Court membership | ||||||
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| Case opinions | ||||||
| Majority | Kennedy, joined by Roberts, Scalia, Thomas, Alito | |||||
| Dissent | Kagan, joined by Breyer, Sotomayor, Ginsburg | |||||
Arizona Christian School Tuition Organization v. Winn, 09-987, was a case decided by the Supreme Court of the United States. The case was consolidated with Gale Garriott, Director, Arizona Department of Revenue, Petitioner v. Kathleen M. Winn, et al. (09-991).
A group of Arizona taxpayers challenged a state law that provides tax credits to people who donate to school tuition organizations that in turn provide scholarships to students who want to attend private or religious schools.[1] The taxpayers claimed a violation of the Establishment Clause. The District Court dismissed the case on the grounds that the taxpayers did not state a claim.[1] The decision was reversed by the Ninth Circuit, which ruled that the respondents had standing to sue citing Flast v. Cohen.[1]
The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that the plaintiffs did not have standing to bring suit[2] Writing for the majority, Justice Kennedy stated, “This Court has rejected the general proposition that an individual who has paid taxes has a ‘continuing, legally cognizable interest in ensuring that those funds are not used by the Government in a way that violates the Constitution.’”[1] Ultimately, the Supreme Court found that any damages or harm claimed by the taxpayers by virtue of simply being a taxpayer would be pure speculation because the issue at hand was a tax credit and not a government expenditure.[1] Justice Scalia filed a concurring opinion that was joined by Justice Thomas.
Justice Kagan, in her dissent, commented that, “cash grants and targeted tax breaks are means of accomplishing the same government objective- to provide financial support to select individuals or organizations,” she continued to argue that, “tax payers should be able to challenge the subsidy.”[1] The dissent was joined by Justices Ginsburg, Breyer, and Sotomayor. Professor of political science at Fairleigh Dickinson University, Bruce Peabody, pointed out that “the case brought out four dissents, a signal that those justices were prepared to decide the sustentative issue.”[2] Equally, Peter Woolley, professor of political science and director of the PublicMind Poll, posited that, “in making this ruling on such narrow grounds, the court virtually guarantees that plaintiff in one guise or another will be back another day.”[2]
In a national poll, Fairleigh Dickinson University’s PublicMind poll found that a majority (60%) of American voters believe that the tax credits support school choice for parents rather than religion.[2] When the results were broken down, Democrats were more likely to indicate that they felt as if the tax credits support religion (32%) than Republicans (16%).[2] Another interesting feature was that voters ages 30-44 (those most likely to have children) were more likely to believe that the tax credits support parents.[2]