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Everson v. Board of Education
A taxpayer filed a case against a tax-funded school district that reimbursed parents for kids who needed to take public transportation. They argued that the reimbursement for the religious schools violated the constitutional prohibition against state support of religion specifically with the Due Process Clause. The big question was about the separation and church and state and ultimately the justices decided that the constitution did call for a complete separation. -
McCollum v. Board of Education
A school in Champaign IL had religious instruction time added into their school schedule, but an atheist mother took them to court for this because as a result her son was ostracized for not attending these classes. The court decided these classes were unconstitutional because while they said they were voluntary children were still forced into them regardless of faith. They violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment and this case dealt with the separation of church and state. -
Yates v. United States
Officials of the Communist Party USA were charged with violating the Smith Act by being members of the CPUSA. The Smith Act made it unlawful to advocate or organize the destruction or overthrow of any gov. by force. They argued that the CP was engaged in passive political activities and any violation of the Smith Act must involve active attempts to overthrow the gov.The Supreme Court held that the 1st Amendment protected radical and reactionary speech unless it posed a clear a danger. -
New York Times Co. v. United States
The ruling made it possible for The NY Times and The Washington Post newspapers to publish the Pentagon Papers w/out risk of gov. censorship or punishment. Pres. Nixon used executive authority to force the Times to suspend publication of classified info they had. The court had to decide whether the constitutional freedom of the press was subordinate to an executive order for secrecy of info. They ruled that the 1st Amendment did protect the right of The NY Times to print the materials. -
Bowen v. Roy
Native American parents applied for financial aid and one of the requirements to receive aid was that they supply Social Security numbers for their family. They refused to do so for their daughter b/c it would violate their religious ideals that using a number to identify her would diminish her spiritual uniqueness. The Supreme Court ruled that the gov's use of a Social Security number for the child did not impair her family's freedom to believe, express and exercise their religion. -
Edwards v. Aguillard
US Supreme Court case about the constitutionality of teaching creationism. The Court considered a law requiring that where evolutionary science was taught in public schools, creation science must also be taught. The Court ruled that this law violated the Establishment Clause b/c it was specifically intended to advance a religion. It also held that teaching a variety of scientific theories about the origins of humankind must be done with the clear intent of enhancing knowledge. -
County of Allegheny v. American Civil Liberties Union
US Supreme Court case in which the Court considered the constitutionality of two recurring Christmas and Hanukkah holiday displays located on public property. The majority held that the County violated the Establishment Clause by displaying the menorah in the county courthouse, because the principle of the display was to advance religion. A different majority held that the menorah display was not endorsing their religion in the particular physical setting and just recognized the two religions. -
Church of the Lukumi Babalu Aye v. City of Hialeah
The Church of the Lukumi-Babalu Aye, Inc. was a Florida not-for-profit organization that practiced the Santeria religion. Animal sacrifice is common in this religion and is used for many ceremonies.The city wanted them to stop this practice and made local laws against it. The issue was whether the city laws violated the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment. It was decided that they did and that the Santeria people should be allowed to practice their religion. -
Elk Grove Unified School District v. Newdow
Newdow filed suit against the Elk Grove Unified School District on behalf of his daughter, who was enrolled in the Elk Grove public schools. He said the words "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance amounted to an unconstitutional establishment of religion and that the daily recitation of the Pledge with the offending words interfered with his right to have his daughter follow with his religious beliefs. The court found the Pledge was constitutional and dismissed the case. -
Guiles v. Marineau
A student had worn a T-shirt that was offensive toward Pres. Bush along with other offensive pictures. A school employee, asked the student to cover up the parts of the shirt in accordance with the school system's dress code.The student refused and sued the school but the court held that the images depicted on the shirt were plainly offensive and that the school was entitled to enforce its dress-code,but also ordered the removal of the offense from the student's disciplinary record. -
Morse v. Frederick
SC case that held that the 1st Amendment. does not prevent educators from suppressing free speech at or across the street from a school-supervised event. A principal suspended Frederick after he displayed a banner reading "BONG HiTS 4 JESUS" across the street from the school. Frederick sued b/c his constitutional rights to free speech were violated. The court decided that the school did not violate free speech b/c it was at a school event and it was promoting illegal drug us.
