May 18, 2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Maggie Garrett or Gerry Weber 404-523-6201
Court Overturns Tax Exemption for Certain Religious Texts
The United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia struck down two Georgia sales and use tax exemptions yesterday. The provisions applied only to certain religious texts and the Court ruled that these statutes were discriminatory on the basis of the content of the speech.
The ACLU filed the case on behalf of Candace Apple, owner of the Phoenix & Dragon bookstore, and Thomas Budlong, a customer. The Plaintiffs objected to the Georgia law because it only applied to certain religious literature. For example, when Mr. Budlong purchased the Bhagavad Gita, a sacred Hindu text, he was taxed.
Candace Apple was pleased with the decision: “I am glad that the government will now treat all of my customers the same, regardless of whether they are buying scripture from a well-recognized religion, sacred texts from a lesser known religion, or philosophy texts to guide their lives.”
Thomas Budlong stated, “I’m very happy that the first amendment won out and the state will now treat all printed materials the same.”
Maggie Garrett, ACLU of Georgia Staff Counsel, praised the decision: “The State should not be in the business of picking and choosing which religious groups and texts get a special tax exemption. The First Amendment guarantees that we are all allowed to express our views and that the government can’t tax the views it disagrees with, but give tax breaks to those it likes.
The Statutes in question were O.C.G.A. §§ 48-8-3(16), which granted tax exemptions for “Holy Bibles, testaments, and similar books commonly recognized as Holy Scripture,” and (15)(a), which granted exemptions for “religious papers” when owned by religious institutions. The District Court explained that “both exemptions express a governmental preference for organized religious expression over spiritual, philosophical, agnostic, atheistic, and other forms of self expression.”
In 1989, the United States Supreme Court struck down a nearly identical statute in Texas Monthly, Inc. v. Bullock, 489 U.S. 1 (1989). Since then, federal appellate courts and state supreme courts in North Carolina, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island have followed suit.