Supreme Court Denies Faith-Based Funding Suit, Affirms Taxpayer Standing Precedent

By DonByrd
Mon Jun 25, 2007 at 05:49:49 PM EST

Today, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 against a lawsuit brought by the Freedom from Religion Foundation challenging the Bush Administration's faith-based funding conferences. The good news is that the majority opinion, written by Justice Alito, specifically declined the invitation of Scalia and Thomas to overrule Flast, the precedent which allows taxpayer standing in Establishment Clause cases.

The problem is: now that the Court has created this Establishment Clause safe-haven within the Executive Branch, will government agencies seek to take greater advantage of that allowance? Or will future administrations heed Justice Kennedy's admonition that the Executive Branch is required to follow the Constitution even when there is no means to be sued for not doing so? (And do these qualify for a round of Atrios' "simple answers to simple questions"?)