United States Seventh Circuit

In an Establishment Clause challenge to a statute requiring the U.S. military to assist the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) organization with its Jamboree, ruling for plaintiffs is reversed where the plaintiffs lacked standing to bring the suit since the Jamboree statute is primarily an exercise of congressional powers under the Military and Property Clauses, and while the use of those powers necessarily requires some incidental spending, the statute is not the kind of "tax and spend" legislation that is open to a taxpayer challenge.

Appellate Information

• Argued 04/06/2006
• Decided 04/04/2007
• Published 04/04/2007

Judges

• WOOD, Circuit Judge., Before BAUER, WOOD, and SYKES, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Seventh Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Erik S. Jaffe, Washington, DC, for Amicus Curiae, American Legion., George A. Davidson (argued), Savvas Foukas, Hughes, Hubbard & Reed, New York, NY, for Amicus Curiae, Boy Scouts of America., John Tuskey, American Center for Law & Justice, Virginia Beach, VA, for Amicus Curiae, American Center for Law & Justice., Robert F. McDonnell, Office of the Attorney General, Richmond, VA, for Amicus Curiae, Commonwealth of Virginia., William H. Hurd, Troutman Sanders, Richmond, VA, for Amicus Curiae, John Warner, Senator, Frank R. Wolf, Congressman, Bob Goodlatte, Congressman, Tom Davis, Congressman, Eric Cantor, Congressman., John H. Findley, Pacific Legal Foundation, Sacramento, CA, for Amicus Curiae, Pacific Legal Foundation., Eric A. Isaacson, Lerach, Coughlin, Stoia, Geller, Rudman & Robbins, San Diego, CA, for Amicus Curiae, Unitarian Universalist Association., Ayesha Khan, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, Washington, DC, for Amicus Curiae, Americans United for Separation of Church and State.


• For Appellees:
  
• Adam D. Schwartz (argued), Roger Baldwin Foundation of ACLU, Inc., Chicago, IL, for Plaintiffs-Appellees., Lowell Sturgill (argued), Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, Appellate Section, Washington, DC, for Defendant-Appellant.