Winn v. Garriot
Arizona Tax Credits (Federal Court Case)

This lawsuit is a collateral attack on Arizona’s Scholarship Tax Credit, which was previously held constitutional under the First Amendment and various state constitutional provisions by the Arizona Supreme Court in Kotterman v. Killian. In this federal lawsuit, the Arizona ACLU affiliate again attacks the program under the First Amendment. IJ has intervened, as it did in the Kotterman case, on behalf of the program’s beneficiaries. The federal district court had originally dismissed the lawsuit under the federal Tax Injunction Act, which requires that challenges to taxes must be filed in state court, but the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned that ruling. The U.S. Supreme Court later affirmed the 9th Circuit’s decision, sending the case back to the District Court for further proceedings. Given the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Zelman upholding the Cleveland voucher program under the First Amendment, coupled with the Kotterman decision, choice supporters are in a strong position to defend the Arizona tax credit program.