The Supreme Court on April 4 tossed out a challenge to Arizona’s tuition tax credit program. That initiative in many cases directs scholarship money to private schools, including Catholic schools. The 5-to-4 ruling, written by Justice Anthony Kennedy, held that Arizona taxpayers lack jurisdiction for challenging the program. He argued that because the support is generated through tax credits for donations to scholarship organizations, no actual state spending is involved. In a strong dissent, Justice Elena Kagan said that because of the program the state lost an estimated $350 million in revenue. “The court’s arbitrary distinction threatens to eliminate all occasions for a taxpayer to contest the government’s monetary support of religion. Precisely because appropriations and tax breaks can achieve identical objectives,” wrote Kagan, “the government can easily substitute one for the other.”
Tuition Credit Survives Supreme Court
Show Comments (
)
Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.
The latest from america
President Trump offered a vibrant demonstration of the kind of worst-case scenario Pope Leo may have had in mind about the collapse of critical thinking.
In his first appointment of a top-level official of the Roman Curia, Pope Leo XIV named Sister Tiziana Merletti, a canon lawyer, to be secretary of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.
“We were once leaders in petroleum and gas research; now we’re becoming leaders in green hydrogen and carbon capture. This isn’t just a technological shift; it’s a spiritual one.”
A cardinal reflects on his experience of the conclave