McCollum v. Board of Education

McCollum

v.

Board of Education

Case Brief #3

Ginavie Meyer

Facts: McCollum v Board of Education

The Champaign County Board of Education in 1945 authorized a program in which outside religious teachers hired by private third parties provided weekly religious instruction in public schools. The 30-40 minute classes were not mandatory, however Vashti McCollum, a mother in Champaign, Illinois on behalf of her son, Jim described how he was punished by teachers and teased by students for not taking part in religious instruction that she felt was illegally taught in his public school. McCollum, an atheist, complained that her son was ostracized for not attending the classes.

Issue:

Did the use of the public school system for religious classes violate the First Amendment's Establishment Clause?

Jeffersonian Principle

• A wall of separation

• Between Church & State

Held March 8, 1948

By a 8-1 vote, the majority held that the program had violated the Establishment Clause. The Court reasoned that the use of tax-supported property for religious instruction and the close cooperation between the school authorities and the religious council violated the constitutionally-required separation of church and state. Justice Black stated because pupils were required to attend school and were released in part from this legal duty if they attended the religious classes, the Court found that the Champaign system was "beyond question an utilization of the tax-established and tax-supported public school system to aid religious groups and to spread the faith."

Single Dissent

• Justice Stanley Forman Reed objected to the majority’s broad interpretation of the Establishment Clause. 

  
  

My Thoughts

I agree with federal and state statutes about schools remaining neutral to religion and shall not pressure any student and/or any public school employee into religious practices. The final decision being 8-1 was intriguing due to the majority ruling in favor of McCollum. Although she lost at the first two court levels and was treated as "a very unpopular woman," Vashti did not give up. Her appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court resulted in a landslide victory for separation of church and state, which is still the prevailing precedent in public school law today. She wrote a book about this and there is a film about this landmark case!

References

• Illinois ex rel. McCollum v. Board of Ed. of School Dist. No. 71, Champaign County. (n.d.). Oyez. Retrieved November 7, 2020, from https://www.oyez.org/cases/1940-1955/333us203

• Google Images. McCollum v. Board of Education . Retrieved November 7, 2020 from https://www.images.google.com/mccollumvboe