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Illinois ex rel. McCollum v. Board of Education - Significance, Wall Between Church And State Remains Intact, Related Cases, Further Readings

appellant court justices public

Appellant

Vashti McCollum

Appellee

Board of Education of School District No. 71, Champaign County, Illinois

Appellant's Claim

That a policy of permitting limited religious instruction in public schools violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.

Chief Lawyer for Appellant

Walter F. Dodd

Chief Lawyers for Appellee

Owen Rall and John L. Franklin

Justices for the Court

Hugo Lafayette Black (writing for the Court), Harold Burton, William O. Douglas, Felix Frankfurter, Robert H. Jackson, Frank Murphy, Wiley Blount Rutledge, Fred Moore Vinson

Justices Dissenting

Stanley Forman Reed

Place

Washington, D.C.

Date of Decision

8 March 1948

Decision

The Supreme Court held that the state could not permit religious instruction to take place in public school classrooms.

Additional Topics

Illinois ex rel. McCollum v. Board of Education - Further Readings

Illinois ex rel. McCollum v. Board of Education - Significance

McCollum was one of the first Supreme Court decisions to address issues raised by the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. In it, the Court affirmed that the wall separating church and state is both high and impregnable. The Illinois school board provided space in its buildings for religious instruction to be given by teachers who were paid by various private religious groups, but subject …

Illinois ex rel. McCollum v. Board of Education - Wall Between Church And State Remains Intact

Justice Black, writing for the eight-member Court majority, cited an opinion he had written in another Establishment Clause case, Everson v. Board of Education, just the year before: [T]he First Amendment rests upon the premise that both religion and government can best work to achieve their lofty aims if each is left free from the other within its respective sphere. Or, as we said in the Everson …

Illinois ex rel. McCollum v. Board of Education - Related Cases

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