Supreme Court Kicks Open Door to Tax Payer Funding of Religious Schools While Closing Door to Tax Payers for Relief

In a 5-4 decision, the five Roman Catholic* justices affirmed the ability of the Arizona legislature to divert tax payer monies to parochial schools through the use of tax credits while denying the right of tax payers to challenge such diversions.  By denying standing to the plaintiffs in the 14 year old case, the Supreme Court basically closed the door to all tax payers to challenge laws that funnel monies to parochial schools and institutions in breach of the separation of church and state.

A little history, as I understand it.  In Arizona, a person may "donate" monies to a "scholarship" fund that supports students of private and parochial schools.  Those "donated" monies then are reimbursed dollar for dollar up to $1000 in the form of tax credits.  Not tax deductions but tax credits.  The state claims that since they are giving a credit only for the "donation" it is not funding private or parochial schools.

The Supreme Court today, for all intents and purposes, agreed with the state.  But they did so in the insidious manner of denying "standing" to the plaintiffs.  In other words, the 5 conservative justices said "fuck you" to tax payers who feel that the state is willfully breaking through the wall that separates church and state.  The conservatives on the Roberts Court enjoy denying standing when they cannot twist the Constitution enough to support their agenda.  In this particular case, they basically shut the court house door to any tax payer who has a gripe about how tax payer monies are spent.

So, even though my tax payer monies are being spent to support parochial schools, the Supreme Court has ruled that I have no standing to challenge such support.

I guess only the rich, powerful and corporations will now have access to the Roberts Court.

*I use the term "Roman Catholic" to denote that the 5 justices (Roberts, Thomas, Scalia, Kennedy and Alito) are all of the conservative strain of Catholicism.  I am also of the opinion that Roberts, Scalia, Alito and possibly even Thomas are of the Opus Dei strain of Roman Catholics, thus making them ultra-conservative Catholics.  This is not to demean Catholics, but merely to point out that the decisions by the 5 conservative justices often adhere to the orthodoxy of the very conservative strain of Catholicism.

Let Them Eat Cake - The Second Helping

You can read the original Let Them Eat Cake here.

Courtesy of Fratelli Studios

It didn’t take long for Governor Brewer and the Republican controlled legislature to strike a deal to give more subsidies to corporations on the backs of Arizona’s poor and working poor.  If you remember, Governor Brewer has proposed dropping almost 300 thousand men, women and children from the Arizona’s Medicaid (ACCCHS) rolls in order to cut $540 million from the budget.  Not surprisingly, the new corporate welfare bill will cost an estimated $538 million a year.

WHAT THE FUCK?!  Arizona can afford to give out $538 million a year in tax breaks, tax cuts and other corporate “incentives” yet it can’t afford $540 million a year to make sure that 300 thousand men, women and children don’t go without non-emergency room medical care?  Are we as a state that callous that we would throw that many people to the wolves in order to give more corporate welfare in the name of “job creation”?

Arizona already has some of the lowest corporate income and property taxes in the nation.  We are one of the most business friendly states and one of the most worker unfriendly be an “at will” and “right to work” state.  Maybe we are spending on all of this money on corporations because we can’t entice them here any other way.  I mean, why would a corporation want to invest in creating jobs in a state that doesn’t value public education, public transportation or a social safety net?

Then again, there will be corporations that will jump at the opportunity to partake in corporate welfare at the expense of 300 thousand men, women and children.  Those corporations will wallow in the state’s largesse and provide very little in return.  Those corporations will gladly say, “Let them eat cake”.