|
''Texas Monthly v. Bullock'' was a case brought before the United States Supreme Court in November 1988. The case (initiated by the publishers of Texas Monthly, a well-known general-interest magazine in Texas) was to test the legality of a Texas Statute that exempted religious publications from paying state sales tax. The Court, in a 6-3 decision, overturned an appellate court's decision that the exemption was constitutional, and remanded the case. ==History== Prior to October 2, 1984, the State of Texas exempted from sales tax "magazine subscriptions running half a year or longer and entered as second class mail". The exemption applied to any subscription regardless of its content. Beginning on the above date, the State of Texas repealed the exemption (it would later reinstate it in its entirety effective October 1, 1987). However, during the 1984-1987 period it maintained an exemption for "periodicals published or distributed by a religious faith consisting entirely of writings promulgating the teaching of the faith, along with books consisting solely of writings sacred to a religious faith." The publishers of ''Texas Monthly'', a popular and well-known general-interest magazine that did not qualify for the exemption, challenged the exemption by paying over $400,000 in sales taxes for 1985 under protest, then filing suit in Travis County District Court to recover the taxes paid. The District Court agreed, striking down the statute as a violation of both the Establishment Clause and the Free Press Clause, and ordered the State of Texas to refund the taxes paid plus interest. However, the Third Texas Court of Appeals reversed in a 2-1 decision. The Court of Appeals determined that the tax exemption met the tests required under ''Lemon v. Kurtzman'' and thus did not violate the Establishment Clause. In addition, the Court of Appeals determined that the tax exemption also did not violate the Free Press Clause, as only a handful of publications were qualified. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Texas Monthly, Inc. v. Bullock」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|