Wednesday round-up

During this quiet week at the Court, commentators continue to examine Arizona Christian School Tuition Organization v. Winn, in which the Court held that taxpayers lack standing to raise a First Amendment challenge to an Arizona program that provides tax credits for contributions to tuition organizations that in turn use those contributions to fund scholarships to religious schools. In a post for the Opinionator blog of the New York Times, Stanley Fish discusses Justice Kagan™s style of argumentation in her inaugural dissent. Fish writes that Kagan™s dissent marks her as someone to reckon with, both inside and outside the Court and gives some hope to those wishing that she will be the long-sought liberal counterweight to Antonin Scalia. The Washington Times editorial board, meanwhile, is critical of Kagan™s argument that there is no functional difference between a tax credit and a government appropriation. At the Huffington Post, Andrew Coulson supports the Court™s ruling, writing that it reminds us . . . that there is a way to finance universal education without resorting to socially corrosive compulsion. Similarly, Bill Frezza, in a column for Forbes, supports Arizona™s tax credit program, arguing that not only the rich should have the power to choose private education.

Briefly:

• The editorial board of the New York Times discusses Arizona Free Enterprise Club™s Freedom Club PAC v. Bennett and argues that the court™s conservative majority is . . .  reshaping politics, ruling that what matters most for money and speech is their fair market™ impact. The result will be closer scrutiny of public financing, while enabling even more rampant spending by wealthy candidates. (ACSblog takes note of the editorial.)

• Caroline Mala Corbin at Concurring Opinions and Leslie Griffin at ACSblog are both critical of the so-called ministerial exception, an issue raised by Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. EEOC, in which the Court recently granted cert.

• The Blog of LegalTimes and the Wall Street Journal™s Washington Wire blog have accounts of an event Monday night that featured three of the Justices. Justices Ginsburg, Alito, and Sotomayor served on a mock trial panel at the Shakespeare Theater in Washington, D.C. that also included four judges from the D.C. Circuit. The mock trial was based on Oscar Wilde™s play An Ideal Husband.

• Brandon Garrett kicks off a series for Slate on convicting the innocent by referencing the Court™s recent decisions in Connick v. Thompson, Skinner v. Switzer, and District Attorney™s Office v. Osborne.

• The Washington Post™s Virginia Politics blogs reports that, [i]n an interview on Greta Van Susteren™s On the Record™ on Fox News, Donald Trump and Van Susteren agreed that the Supreme Court should act to end uncertainty about the legality of the health-care overhaul by expediting review of the law.

• Politico has a report on Justice Thomas™s wife™s new role as a special correspondent for the Daily Caller, a conservative news website.