The Arizona Republic previews Wednesday's Supreme Court oral argument in Arizona Christian School Organization v. Winn, a case ostensibly about school vouchers being used to the overwhelming benefit of religious schools. The likely issue to be addressed by the court, however, may be that of the plaintiff's standing to bring the suit in the first place.
Michael W. McConnell, a retired federal appeals judge and director of the Constitutional Law Center at Stanford University, said it seems "overwhelmingly likely" that the pivotal issue will be whether taxpayers have the right, or the "standing," to sue the government in cases involving church-state separation.
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In recent years, the Supreme Court has narrowed that right to sue and could further address the issue in the Arizona case.One sign that it will is the intervention of the Solicitor General's Office, the legal team for the U.S. government. The solicitor general has filed papers in the case focusing on the standing issue, and the court has granted argument time to the office as a third party, but not to one of the tuition organizations.
