July 22, 2004 | Read Time: 1 minute
In the wake of a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision, the American Civil Liberties Union has asked a federal appeals court to reinstate a ruling that struck down Louisiana sales-tax exemptions for churches and other nonprofit groups.
At issue is whether the exemptions, which allow churches, religious camps, and other groups to avoid sales tax on the purchase of religious materials, are constitutional. Joe Cook, executive director of ACLU of Louisiana, says that they are not because they improperly favor religious over nonreligious groups.
In 2002, after the ACLU first challenged the exemptions, U.S. District Judge Ginger Berrigan struck them down. But last summer, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit overturned the district judge’s ruling. The appeals court said that the case must be heard in state court because it involves state taxes.
Last month, the Supreme Court ruled in an unrelated Arizona case that federal courts can hear constitutional challenges to state taxes. The case, J. Elliott Hibbs, Director, Arizona Department of Revenue v. Kathleen M. Winn et. al., No. 02-1809, involved a tax break that helped provide money for private religious schools.
Mr. Cook says that the Supreme Court decision, which specifically rejected the Fifth Circuit court’s opinion, opens the door for the exemptions to be removed.
“The state of Louisiana cannot ignore a bedrock principle of the First Amendment by aiding religion over irreligion through a tax-exemption scheme,” he says.
The ACLU’s latest motion was filed this month in the case American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Louisiana v. Cynthia Bridges, Secretary of the Louisiana Department of Revenue, No. 02-30493.
