Jon Garth Murray v. Angela Marie Buchanan, Treasurer of the United States

Dissent to Panel Opinion in Murray v. Buchanan

(No. 81-1301, D.C.Cir., March 9, 1982)

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Appellants’ claims against the payment of legislative chaplains must be dismissed ... if the issues involved are non justiciable within the purview of the political question doctrine. Schlesinger v. Reservists Committee to Stop the War, 418 U.S. 208, 215, 94 S.Ct. 2925, 2929, 41 L.Ed.2d 706 (1974) .... [This hurdle] is [not] cleared here. Accordingly, in my judgment we should affirm the holding of the District Court.

I. The Political Question Doctrine

As the Supreme Court noted in Baker v. Carr, 369 U.S. 186,…