Minnesota Federation of Teachers v. Randall

• Decision Date: 13 December 1989
• Docket Number: No. 88-5127,88-5127
• Parties: 57 Ed. Law Rep. 1137 MINNESOTA FEDERATION OF TEACHERS, on behalf of their organization and members and Richard M. Mans, President, Minnesota Federation of Teachers, Taxpayer, Appellants, v. Dr. Ruth RANDALL, Commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Education, Ruth Myers, President of the State Board of Education, Bethel College, North Central Bible College, Northwestern College, Concordia College, Moorhead, Augsburg College, College of St. Thomas, St. John University, College of St. Catherine, Hamline University, Macalaster College, Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

Page 1354

891 F.2d 1354

57 Ed. Law Rep. 1137

MINNESOTA FEDERATION OF TEACHERS, on behalf of their

organization and members and Richard M. Mans,

President, Minnesota Federation of

Teachers, Taxpayer, Appellants, v. Dr. Ruth RANDALL, Commissioner of the Minnesota Department

of Education, Ruth Myers, President of the State Board of

Education, Bethel College, North Central Bible College,

Northwestern College, Concordia College, Moorhead, Augsburg

College, College of St. Thomas, St. John University, College

of St. Catherine, Hamline University, Macalaster College, Appellees.

No. 88-5127.

United States Court of Appeals,

Eighth Circuit.

Submitted Nov. 16, 1988.

Decided Dec. 13, 1989.

Ronald G. Marks, Roger A. Peterson, Peterson, Engberg, & Peterson, Minneapolis, Minn., for appellants.

Cindy L. Lavorato, Asst. Atty. Gen., St. Paul, Minn., for appellees.

Before HEANEY ^* and BEAM, Circuit Judges, and STUART, ^** District Judge.

PER CURIAM.

Plaintiffs brought an action in the district court for Minnesota challenging the constitutionality of the Minnesota Post-Secondary Enrollment Options Act. Minn.Stat. § 123.3514 (1986) (Act). The Act allows public high school students in their junior and senior years to take advanced courses at two- and four-year colleges, some of which are religiously affiliated. Minnesota reallocates funds from public schools to these colleges in proportion to the amount of course work done by public students at these colleges.

The plaintiffs are the Minnesota Federation of Teachers (M.F.T.) and Richard Mans, the President of M.F.T. Their complaint alleges that the Act violates the establishment clause of the first amendment, and that it violates Minnesota's Constitution. They request declaratory relief, as well as the enjoining of disbursements to religiously affiliated schools. The district court granted summary judgment for the defendants, holding that all the plaintiffs lacked standing. We reverse in part and affirm in part.

I. BACKGROUND

The Act permits any eleventh or twelfth grade public high school student to enroll for high school credit in nonsectarian courses offered at the post-secondary institution of his or her choice. The student is not required to pay for the course if the student is accepted by the institution, the course would count as credit toward graduation at that post-secondary school, and the course is taken only for high school credit. If these requirements are met, the state reimburses the institution in an amount equal to the lesser of: (1) the actual cost of tuition, textbooks, materials and fees at the college attended, or (2) the per-student funding normally provided to the student's public high school, prorated by course units. Following completion of the course, the books and materials become the property of the student's public school district.

During 1985-86, 3,523 students statewide participated in the program, of which 230, or 6.52%, attended private colleges. In the following year, 2,182 students participated, of which 138, or 6.32%, attended private colleges. During the 1985-86 school year, between 12,000 and 13,000 courses were taken at post-secondary schools under the program. Affidavit of Jessie Modano, State Project Director, at 3 (July 29, 1987); Joint App. at 182-83. Reallocation may amount to approximately $200 per pupil unit. Deposition of Richard Mans at 20 (February 25, 1987); Joint App. at 121. ¹

II. DISCUSSION

A. RICHARD MANS

Richard Mans is the President of M.F.T. and a media teacher. He asserts several injuries. First, as a taxpayer, he protests the disbursement of tax money to sectarian schools. Second, he argues that the reallocation of funds reduces money available for his salary. Third, Mans relates that when one student left his class under this program the budget for his course was reduced, adversely affecting his remaining students and his teaching experience.

The jurisdiction of federal courts is limited to "cases and controversies." U.S. Const. art. III. One aspect of this limit is the determination of whether the plaintiff is the proper party to litigate the dispute. To have standing to sue, the Constitution requires that each plaintiff show both an injury in fact and that she deserves the protection of the statutory or constitutional provisions invoked. Ass'n of Data Processing Service Org. v. Camp, 397 U.S. 150, 90 S.Ct. 827, 25 L.Ed.2d 184 (1970); cf. Fletcher, The Structure of Standing, 98 Yale L.J. 221 (1988). In addition, prudential concerns sometimes militate against granting standing to those seeking to assert either the rights of others or generalized social grievances, and those unable to litigate the merits with sufficient vigor to properly present the issues. Warth v. Seldin, 422 U.S. 490, 498-501, 95 S.Ct. 2197, 2204-06, 45 L.Ed.2d 343 (1975). Special rules have developed regarding types of plaintiffs and their claims. We address initially Mans' claim to have state taxpayer standing.

In this case, the district court concluded that to have standing Mans must show an increase in his overall tax burden from the challenged action, relying on Doremus v. Bd. of Educ., 342 U.S. 429, 72 S.Ct. 394, 96 L.Ed. 475 (1952) (state taxpayers denied standing). Since Mans could not prove that his taxes had been raised, the district court felt that he lacked standing to challenge the Act. We believe that the district court has misconstrued Doremus, and underappreciated the import of other Supreme Court decisions.

Initially, municipal taxpayers were thought to have suffered sufficient injury from improper local expenditures to have standing to challenge the expenditures, while federal taxpayers' injury was considered too minute and indeterminable in relation to federal expenditures to sustain standing. Frothingham v. Mellon, 262 U.S. 447, 43 S.Ct. 597, 67 L.Ed. 1078 (1923). Standing rules for state taxpayers were not formalized until Doremus. Frothingham was subsequently re-evaluated in Flast v. Cohen, 392 U.S. 83, 88 S.Ct. 1942, 20 L.Ed.2d 947 (1968). Flast and its progeny establish that a federal taxpayer may sue to prevent the disbursement of tax money where the disbursement violates the establishment clause of the first amendment and where the disbursement is made pursuant to Congress' power to tax and spend. Flast, 392 U.S. at 102, 88 S.Ct. at 1953. ² The district court recognized that under Flast only a disbursement of public funds was required, but felt that the injury analysis for state taxpayers was still analytically distinct. We begin by clarifying Doremus.

In Doremus, state taxpayers challenged a law authorizing public school teachers to read aloud from the Bible. The Supreme Court held that they lacked standing because they could not show how mandatory Bible-reading was "supported by any separate tax or paid for from any particular appropriation or that it adds any sum whatever to the cost of conducting school." Doremus, 342 U.S. at 433, 72 S.Ct. at 397 (emphasis added). The district court incorrectly interpreted this language to require that Mans show an increase in his tax bill. Doremus, however, clearly indicated that an increase in the plaintiff's tax burden was only one way injury could be shown. As the language above indicates, the Court believed that direct expenditures would also suffice. The plaintiffs in Doremus were denied standing because they failed to connect any state expenditures to the challenged action. Id. at 434, 72 S.Ct. at 397. Moreover, the Court in Doremus was careful to distinguish Everson v. Bd. of Educ., 330 U.S. 1, 67 S.Ct. 504, 91 L.Ed. 711 (1947). In Everson, a state taxpayer challenged public expenditures for the transportation of parochial school children. The Doremus Court described the dispute in Everson as justiciable because "Everson showed a measurable appropriation or disbursement of school-district funds occasioned by the activities complained of. This complaint does not." Doremus, 342 U.S. at 434, 72 S.Ct. at 397. Everson also indicated that the establishment clause limits state spending powers as well. Everson, 330 U.S. at 16, 67 S.Ct. at 511. Thus, the effect of Flast was to harmonize in some respects federal and state taxpayer standing. Flast, 392 U.S. at 102, 88 S.Ct. at 1953.

Other Supreme Court decisions support the view that Doremus only requires a measurable expenditure of tax money, and indicate that Flast and Doremus are now relied on interchangeably where establishment clause violations are urged. On the same day Doremus was decided, the Court handed down Adler v. Bd. of Educ., 342 U.S. 485, 72 S.Ct. 380, 96 L.Ed. 517 (1952). In Adler, a state law required the dismissal of any public school teacher who belonged to a subversive organization. Justice Frankfurter dissented, arguing that the Court lacked jurisdiction because the plaintiffs lacked standing. With respect to the taxpayer-plaintiffs, Frankfurter argued that under Doremus they did not have standing because the taxpayers could not show that their tax burden would be increased. Adler, 342 U.S. at 501-02, 72 S.Ct. at 389 (Frankfurter, J., dissenting). The other eight justices ignored Justice Frankfurter's arguments and reached the merits. In Chambers v. Marsh, 675 F.2d 228 (8th Cir.1982), we relied on Flast in holding that Chambers had standing as a state taxpayer. The Supreme Court affirmed on standing, writing: "[W]e agree that Chambers, as a member of the legislature and as a taxpayer whose taxes are used to fund the chaplaincy, has standing to assert this claim." Marsh v. Chambers, 463 U.S. 783, 786 n. 4, 103 S.Ct. 3330, 3333 n. 4, 77 L.Ed.2d 1019 (1983). No showing of an increased tax burden was ever made, nor did our reliance on Flast meet with disapproval. ³

The only case relied on by the district court for its view of Doremus, is Hoohuli v. Ariyoshi, 741 F.2d 1169 (9th Cir.1984). Hoohuli, however, does not hold that an increase in the plaintiff's tax burden is required. In fact, that court noted...