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Meek v. Pittenger

Supreme Court of the United States · 1975 · Constitutional Law

Constitutional LawEstablishment ClauseState aid to religious schoolsEstablishment ClauseFirst AmendmentFourteenth Amendmentparochial schoolstextbook loans

Facts

Pennsylvania enacted Act 194 to provide auxiliary services, including counseling, testing, psychological services, speech and hearing therapy, and remedial and exceptional-child instruction, to children enrolled in nonpublic elementary and secondary schools, with those services to be provided on the nonpublic school premises by public intermediate-unit personnel. Act 195 authorized the Commonwealth to lend textbooks directly to nonpublic school students and to lend instructional materials and equipment directly to qualifying nonpublic schools. Eligibility turned on compliance with the state's compulsory-attendance law, and state officials did not inquire into the religious character of participating schools. More than 75% of the qualifying nonpublic schools were church-related or religiously affiliated.

Issue

Whether Pennsylvania may, consistent with the Establishment Clause, lend textbooks to nonpublic school students, lend instructional materials and equipment directly to predominantly church-related nonpublic schools, and provide publicly funded auxiliary services on the premises of those schools.

Rule

Under the Establishment Clause, a statute must have a secular legislative purpose, a primary effect that neither advances nor inhibits religion, and must avoid excessive government entanglement with religion. A state may include church-related schools in generally available programs that provide secular, neutral benefits indirectly to students, such as textbook loans to students, but direct and substantial aid to predominantly sectarian elementary and secondary schools has the impermissible primary effect of advancing religion, and publicly funded instructional personnel placed in such schools create excessive administrative and political entanglement because the state must engage in continuing surveillance to ensure religious neutrality.

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One of 10 multiple-choice questions for this case. Pick an answer to see why.

Ohio enacts a statewide program under which any elementary or secondary student may borrow state-owned textbooks without charge. The books must be titles approved for use in Ohio public schools, and students attending church-affiliated schools in Cleveland receive them after their schools forward student request forms to a public office.

Under the majority's reasoning, is the program most likely constitutional?

Explanation. The majority upheld textbook loans where books were lent directly to students, ownership remained in the State, the books were limited to those acceptable for use in public schools, and the record suggested only secular use. Administrative handling through nonpublic schools did not alter the constitutional result because the benefit was treated as flowing to parents and children, not directly to the schools.