Supreme Court to Rule on Taxpayers’ Right to Challenge Church School Aid

The four sponsors of a major test case challenging the use of Federal funds for church-supported schools today hailed the action of the U.S. Supreme Court in agreeing to hear argument on the right of taxpayers to sue the Government over the expenditure of petrel funds. The four organizations — the American Jewish Congress, United Federation of Teachers, United Parents Associations, and New York Civil Liberties Union — said the high court’s action today “paved the way to an authoritative judicial determination of the constitutionality of federal aid to religious schools.” The suit was initiated in Federal District Court here on Dec. 1, 1966, by a group of seven taxpayers and residents of New York, all of them officers of the four sponsoring organizations. The chief issue in the suit is the use of funds under the Federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to supply textbooks for use in church-connected schools and to pay for teachers assigned to such schools.

A special three-judge Federal Court dismissed the suit last June, citing the 1923 Supreme Court decision in the Fathingham case, which broadly barred taxpayers’ suits in Federal courts. An appeal was then taken to the U.S. Supreme court, arguing that the earlier decision should be overruled and that in any case it did not apply to taxpayer suits based on the constitutional guarantee of religious freedom. It was this appeal that was upheld today by the high court in agreeing to hear argument on the question of standing to sue. The Supreme Court is expected to hear argument on the case some time in January, 1968.