Everson V. Board of Education

Zellers v. Huff (1948)

Nuns, religious brothers, and Priests being teachers in school that teaches religious literature in their classrooms and also wearing religious clothing.

Supreme Court forbidden religious from receiving any schools money and employment in the public schools of New Mexico. They also violated some of the amendments of U.S. and some articles in New Mexico.

Zorach v. Clauson (1952)

Everson v. Board of Education (1947)

New York City has a program called "released time" that allows schools to let their students leave school to go to religious centers for religious instruction or devotional exercises with parental permission.

A New Jersey law allowed reimbursements of money to parents who had children that went to school on buses and to children that went to Catholic schools. Which was operated by the public transportation system.

Similar First Amendment cases have flooded the courts in the decades following Everson. Having invoked Thomas Jefferson's metaphor of the wall of separation in the Everson decision, the lawmakers and courts have struggled how to balance governments' dual duty to satisfy both the nonestablishment clause and the free exercise clause contained in the language of the amendment. The majority and dissenting Justices in Everson split over this very question, with Rutledge in the minority by insisting that the Constitution forbids "every form of public aid or support for religion."

In a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court held that the "released time" program didn't make up the establishment of religion and didn't bother with the exercise of religion. The Court also noted that public things and area weren't being used for the purpose of religious instruction.

Mainly argued about if the New Jersey statute violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment or not.

The dissenters Black and Jackson. The law tended to" establish" religion by using the State's power to promote religion.

The majority of the Supreme Court decided that the New Jersey law didn't violate the First Amendment.

This allows students to be excused from school for religious instruction and is important for teachers and faculty of public schools to follow. The students aren't required to participate and shouldn't be pressured to do so.

Justice Robert Jackson and some other Justices stand for strict adherence to the establishment clause.

Justice Robert Jackson - "I find myself, contrary to first impressions, unable to join in this decision. I have a sympathy, though it is not ideological, with Catholic citizens who are compelled by law to pay taxes for public schools, and also feel constrained by conscience and discipline to support other schools for their own children."

McCollum v. Board of Education (1948)

In Illinois a group was formed by Jewish, Roman Catholic, and some Protestant faiths and was called the Champaign Council on Religious Education. With the Champaign Board of Education, they offered voluntary classes in religious instruction to public school and were conducted in the regular classrooms of the school building. Students who didn't attend the religious instruction were required to go to somewhere else in the building.

Lower courts - Establishment clause claim denied.

Argued whether the Champaign Board of Education violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment or not.

Establishment Clause claim confirmed. The state’s tax supported public school buildings used for the dissemination of religious doctrine is not separation of Church and State.