Long Recognized at Common Law
Meyer and Pierce ’s Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Precedent on Parental Educational Rights and Civic Education
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6211714 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Joseph K Griffith (0000-0003-4619-3672, Ashland University) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 53 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 1-12 |
| Publication date | 2024-01-02 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Perspectives on Political Science (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1045-7097 • E-ISSN: 1930-5478 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/10457097.2023.2278387 |
| OpenAlex | W4391493314 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 23 |
In Meyer v. Nebraska and Pierce v. Society of Sisters, the Supreme Court drew from centuries of common law and decades of state supreme-court jurisprudence. This article examines these common-law commentaries and cases in order to show, first, their account of the role of parental educational rights in a liberal regime and, second, the flexible jurisprudence by which courts were able to hold the middle ground between state and parental absolutism. For common-law commentators such as William Blackstone, James Kent, Joseph Story, and James Schouler, parental educational rights represented a sphere of liberty in which parents could fulfill their natural duty to their children. Since parents typically know and love their own offspring, these rights were seen as a way to help children, parents, and the broader political community flourish. In the mid-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, state supreme courts upheld the authority of the state to form an educated citizenry (by compelling school attendance, maintaining order in public schools, and enforcing minimum requirements for students educated at home) but also the right of parents to exempt their children from certain curricula and educate their children at home. The article concludes by discussing contemporary implications
Absolute monarchy · Common law · Duty · Jurisprudence · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Supreme court · American Constitutional Law and Politics · Catholicism and Religious Studies · Diverse Education Studies and Reforms · Law
| Highly cited | No |
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