The Legal Relationship of Church and State in California Part I

Abstract

A most serious challenge to the legal status of the parochial school came in 1922 when the State of Oregon passed a law requiring all children eight to sixteen years of age to attend public school. This statute was tested by the Society of Sisters of the Holy Name, a Roman Catholic teaching order, and by the Hill Military Academy, a private school. The resulting case, Pierce v. Society of Sisters, was argued before the United States Supreme Court. The Society of Sisters based their plea on the idea that the parent, not the state, should determine who shall educate the child. The Sisters also argued that the statute would deprive them of legitimate and gainful employment. The State of Oregon contended that there would be no deprivation of liberty or property without due process of law. It was also argued that the law had been enacted uto prevent the separation of children along religious lines during the most susceptible years of their lives!' Since the state had no control over immigration it was asserted that the state should have the privilege of Americanizing new immigrants as it best saw fit. In a unanimous decision the Court found the Oregon statute to be unconstitutional. The basic principle stated by the Court was that: