Justices to Decide if Citizens May Challenge White House’s Religion-Based Initiative
By LINDA GREENHOUSE
Published: December 2, 2006
"WASHINGTON, Dec. 1 — The Supreme Court agreed Friday to decide whether private citizens are entitled to go to court to challenge activities of the White House office in charge of the Bush administration’s religion-based initiative.
... A lower court had blocked a lawsuit challenging conferences the White House office holds for the purpose of teaching religious organizations how to apply and compete for federal grants. That constitutional challenge, by a group advocating the strict separation of church and state, was reinstated by an appeals court; the administration in turn appealed to the Supreme Court.
... In its lawsuit challenging the White House conferences, filed in Federal District Court in Madison, Wis., in 2004, an organization called the Freedom From Religion Foundation named as defendants more than a dozen administration officials who oversaw or participated in the conferences.
... The lawsuit alleged that the officials were using tax dollars in ways that violated the separation of church and state required by the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment."
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