ABSTRACT
Before the US Supreme Court will agree to accept a case, the petitioners must convince the justices that they have standing—that is, that they are the appropriate persons to bring the suit and that they have suffered or will suffer actual injury unless the Court intervenes. Standing cases have coalesced around several key civil liberties issues: economic freedoms, the right to protest and other First Amendment freedoms, and environmental protection. In the area of economic freedoms, the Supreme Court for many years did not allow individuals to claim standing to challenge taxes. However, the Court under Chief Justice Earl Warren, known for safeguarding civil liberties, did allow limited standing in Flast v. Cohen, 392 US 83. In this case the Court extended standing to individuals who were challenging tax appropriations to private religious schools on First Amendment Establishment Clause grounds. The more conservative Warren E. Burger Court sought to limit the expansion of civil liberties granted by the Flast decision.
