Court Rejects Wiccans' Tax Challenge
POSTED: 4:55 pm EDT October 26, 2006
TALLAHASSEE -- A Wiccan group’s challenge to a state sales tax exemption for Bibles and other religious items faltered Thursday when the Florida Supreme Court decided it lacked authority to consider the issue after all.
The high court earlier agreed to take the case and even heard oral arguments. But it ruled in a brief 6-1 opinion that it found no conflict in appellate court rulings on the underlying issue of whether the Wiccans have the right, or “standing,” to challenge the law.
The Wiccan Religious Cooperative of Florida had appealed a decision by the 1st District Court of Appeal that it lacked standing.
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The high court wrote that other appellate rulings, which had appeared to be in conflict on that issue, actually dealt with the narrower topic of “taxpayer standing,” the concept that those who pay taxes can challenge tax law. Chief Justice R. Fred Lewis dissented from the unsigned opinion without explanation.
Wiccan lawyer Heather Morcroft declined immediate comment.
The Supreme Court’s decision sidestepped the constitutional issue raised by the Wiccan appeal. Morcroft had argued the tax exemption aids religious organizations in violation of the First Amendment’s establishment clause that prohibits state-sponsored religion.
Kevin Shaughnessy, a lawyer for two religious publications, The Florida Catholic and The Florida Baptist Witnesses, had joined the state in defending the tax exemptions. He was pleased with Thursday’s decision.
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