I rarely agree with the ACLU on cases involving religion, but I have to support them on this one.

A retired Atlanta librarian and a Sandy Springs bookshop owner are challenging a state law that grants a sales tax exemption for purchases of the Bible and other books pertaining to "Holy Scripture."

Their lawsuit, filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Atlanta, said if such works are exempt from sales and use taxes, other philosophical, religious and spiritual works should be as well.

"The law is written in such a way that minority religions don't get the same tax exemption as better-known religions such as Christianity and Judaism," said Maggie Garrett, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia, which represents the two plaintiffs.

State law exempts from sales tax all "Holy Bibles, testaments and similar books commonly recognized as being Holy Scripture." The decades-old law also exempts "any religious paper ... when the paper is owned and operated by religious institutions and denominations," but it does not define religious paper.

Frankly, the argument is a reasonable one – though I might be willing to take it a bit further and raise the issue of why books and periodicals are taxed at all, given that the tax can be seen as inhibiting the communication of ideas and favoring religious speech over non-religious speech.

Posted by: Greg at 01:19 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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