Dec. 1 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Supreme Court will decide whether a group of taxpayers can sue to challenge President George W. Bush's efforts to help religious groups compete for federal social-service funding.

The justices today agreed to review a federal appeals court decision that said the taxpayers and the Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation have legal standing to press their case.

The dispute centers on a series of regional and national conferences sponsored by the White House's Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. The taxpayers say the program violates the U.S. constitutional ban on establishment of religion because it is designed to promote religious community organizations over secular ones.

The Supreme Court said in a 1968 case that taxpayers can sue to challenge public programs that spend money for religious purposes. That ruling marked an exception to the general rule that Americans can't go to court to contest how their tax dollars are spent because they don't have enough of a personal stake in the outcome.

In its appeal, the Bush administration said the 1968 case and later decisions created ``a narrow exception, designed to prevent the specific historic evil of direct legislative subsidization of religious entities.''

The government says the taxpayers, to sue, must point to either a specific congressional appropriation or a transfer of funds to a religious group. The White House program was established through a series of executive orders and wasn't specifically authorized by Congress.

Freedom From Religion said the Bush administration's position would ``insulate a substantial part of federal spending of taxpayer appropriations from any obligation to comply with the Establishment Clause.''

The Chicago-based 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals voted 2- 1 to let the suit go forward in January.

The case is Grace v. Freedom From Religion, 06-157.

To contact the reporter on this story: Greg Stohr in Washington at gstohr@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: December 1, 2006 14:00 EST