Lamont v. Woods

OAKES, Chief Judge:

Aristotle once observed that to give money away is an easy matter and in any man’s power, but to decide to whom to give it, for what purpose and how, is neither in every man’s power nor an easy matter.1 The observation remains true to this day, as this case illustrates.

This is a federal taxpayers’ Establishment Clause challenge to the appropriation and expenditure of public funds by the United States for the construction, maintenance and operation of foreign religious schools. Defendants sought summary judgment on three independent legal grounds: (1) that plaintiffs lacked…