By: WISCONSIN LAW JOURNAL STAFF//November 14, 2014//
By: WISCONSIN LAW JOURNAL STAFF//November 14, 2014//
U.S. Court of Appeals
For the Seventh Circuit
Civil
Constitutional Law — Establishment Clause — standing
The plaintiffs lack standing to challenge the constitutionality of the parsonage exemption in the tax code.
“To summarize, plaintiffs do not have standing to challenge the constitutionality of the parsonage exemption. A person suffers no judicially cognizable injury merely because others receive a tax benefit that is conditioned on allegedly unconstitutional criteria, even if that person is otherwise ‘similarly situated’ to those who do receive the benefit. Only a person that has been denied such a benefit can be deemed to have suffered a cognizable injury. The plaintiffs here have never been denied the parsonage exemption because they have never requested it; therefore, they have suffered no injury.”
Vacated and Remanded.
14-1152 Freedom from Religion Foundation, Inc., v. Lew
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin, Crabb, J., Flaum, J.