Texas Monthly, Inc. v. Bullock

489 U.S. 1 (1989)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

Texas (D) exempted from its sales and use tax magazine subscriptions running half a year or longer and entered as second class mail. This exemption was repealed before being reinstated after 3 years. During the 3-year period D continued to exempt from its sales and use tax periodicals published or distributed by a religious faith consisting entirely of writings promulgating the teaching of the faith, along with books consisting solely of writings sacred to a religious faith. P publishes a general interest magazine. P is not a religious faith, and its magazine does not contain only articles promulgating the teaching of a religious faith. P was required to collect and remit to D the applicable sales tax on the price of qualifying subscription sales. In 1985, P paid sales taxes of $149,107.74 under protest. P sued to recover those payments in state court. The District Court ruled that an exclusive exemption for religious periodicals had 'no basis . . . other than the promotion of religion itself, a prohibited reason' under the Establishment Clause. The court found that the tax discriminated on the basis of the content in violation of the Free Press Clause. The court struck down the tax as applied to nonreligious periodicals and ordered D to refund the amount paid, plus interest. The Court of Appeals reversed. It held that the exemption served the secular purpose of preserving separation between church and state and the exemption did not have the primary effect of advancing or inhibiting religion, because 'the effect of religious tax exemptions such as § 151.312 is to permit religious organizations to be independent of government support or sanction.' The court concluded that the exemption did not produce impermissible government entanglement with religion. It rejected Ps claim that the exemption violated the Free Press Clause because it discriminated among publications on the basis of their content. The Supreme Court granted certiorari.