Illinois ex rel. McCollum v. Board of Ed. of School Dist. No. 71, Champaign County (1940)
- Docket
- 90
- Decided
- 1940-1955-
Summary
Question: Did the use of the public school system for religious classes violate the First Amendment's Establishment Clause or the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment? Conclusion: In an opinion written by Justice Black, the majority held that program 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. 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 a utilization of the tax-established and tax-supported public school system to aid religious groups and to spread the faith." In his lone dissent, Justice Stanley Forman Reed objected to the majority’s broad interpretation of the Establishment Clause.