standing – Blue Cereal Education https://bluecerealeducation.com Sun, 04 Jun 2023 20:20:12 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8.3 https://files.bluecerealeducation.com/2023/06/BowlIcon.png standing – Blue Cereal Education https://bluecerealeducation.com 32 32 Flast v. Cohen (1968) https://bluecerealeducation.com/blog/flast-v-cohen-1968/ Tue, 06 Sep 2022 23:48:29 +0000 http://localhost:8888/bluecerealwp/blog/flast-v-cohen-1968/ The case began when Florence Flast and other New York taxpayers objected to federal legislation which provided funds for the purchase of secular textbooks for use in religious private schools. They argued that using their tax dollars in this way violated the Establishment Clause. The government responded with a derisive chuckle and a gaze full of pity for these poor fools who clearly didn’t understand how these things worked. See, way back in Commonwealth of Massachusetts v. Mellon (1923), the Court had specifically addressed the question of whether or not taxpayers had standing to sue based on being taxpayers. “No,” they said. “Absolutely not. Don’t be stupid.” If the government takes your money against your will and then uses it for something you don’t like – especially something you’re pretty sure they’re not supposed to be doing anyway – take it up with your elected representatives. That’s totally not the job of the judicial branch – “separation of powers” and all that.  

Besides, both the gathering of taxes and the distribution of state funds were simply too general and, you know… big. It was impossible to connect specific state expenses to individual taxpayer contributions in more than a theoretical way – like identifying which raindrops were responsible for a flood downriver weeks later. Besides, every act of legislation, particularly when it involves spending, potentially impacts the economy. Maybe the very act you’re opposing is actually lowering your taxes somehow – did you think of that, Little Miss Lawsuit-Pants?

 

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