The Supreme Court as National School Board

As a student at the University of Michigan a half century ago I had frequent occasion to attend convocations, lectures, and concerts in University Hall.Each time my eyes were confronted with the words, emblazoned on the wall over the great organ, "Religion, morality, and knowledge, being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged."These words are from the famous Northwest Ordinance which was enacted in 1787 by the last Congress of the Confederation, 1 and which from the provision it makes for the establishment of public schools is the matrix of the public school system of a great part of the United States.Two years later many of the same men, representatives of the same people, sitting as the first Congress under the Constitution, proposed the following amendment to the Constitution: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. ... " Do these words represent a fundamental change in attitude on the part of the American people on the question of what relation should subsist between public education and the teaching of religion?Prima facie it seems doubtful, 2 but that it is so, nevertheless, is the implication of the decision on March 8, 1948, of the United States Supreme Court in Illinois ex rel.Vashti McCollum v. Board of Education of Champaign CountyYThe facts and holding in the case may be set forth as follows:A local board of education in Illinois agreed to the giving of religious instruction in the schools under a "released time" arrangement whereby pupils, whose parents signed "request cards," were permitted to attend religious-instruction classes conducted during regular school hours in the school building by outside teachers furnished by a religious council representing the various faiths, subject to the approval and supervision of the superintendent of schools.Attendance records were kept and reported to the school authorites in the same way as for other classes; and pupils not attending the religious instruction classes were required to continue their regular secular studies.The Court held, in an opinion by BLACK, J., that this arrangement was in violation of the constitutional principle of separation of Church and State, as expressed in the First Amendment and made applicable to the states by the Fourteenth Amendment, and accordingly that the state courts below had acted erroneously in refusing relief to the corn

Political science · Supreme court · American Constitutional Law and Politics · Judicial and Constitutional Studies · Law · Legal Issues in Education

• What America Stands For

  Open Access•Aaron I Abell•The Review of Politics•1959

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• How Far Does the Constitution Separate Church and State

  Open Access•Lynford A Lardner•American Political Science Review•1951

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• Constitutional Law in 1947–48

  Open Access•David Fellman•American Political Science Review•1949

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