I don't recall if this was previously posted, or perhaps a story about the case in earlier stages of the proceedings had been posted. Sorry for any duplication.
From: http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1132308316504 Wiccan Lawsuit May Spell Toil, Taxes and Trouble for Fla. Justices Carl Jones Daily Business Review 11-21-2005 The Florida Supreme Court has agreed to hear a constitutional challenge to a Florida law exempting sales taxes on religious books. A divided Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to accept the case, filed by a nonprofit Orlando-based Wiccan group, and hear oral arguments on its merits. The case centers on a Florida law that exempts sales and use tax on "religious publications, bibles, hymn books, prayer books, vestments, altar paraphernalia, sacramental chalices, and like church service and ceremonial raiments and equipment." The lower appellate court opinion reveals the Wiccan group was exempted from paying sales tax on copies of the Bible and Quran, but forced to pay sales tax on the Satanic Bible and the Witches Bible. The question before the court is whether a tax-exempt organization, like a religious group, has a right to challenge a state tax exemption that benefits them. ******* [the rest of the story is at the cited URL] Jim Maule Professor of Law, Villanova University School of Law Villanova PA 19085 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://vls.law.vill.edu/prof/maule mauledagain.blogspot.com President, TaxJEM Inc (computer assisted tax law instruction) (www2.taxjem.com) Publisher, JEMBook Publishing Co. (www.jembook.com) Maule Family Archivist & Genealogist (www.maulefamily.com) _______________________________________________ To post, send message to [email protected] To subscribe, unsubscribe, change options, or get password, see http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/religionlaw Please note that messages sent to this large list cannot be viewed as private. Anyone can subscribe to the list and read messages that are posted; people can read the Web archives; and list members can (rightly or wrongly) forward the messages to others.
