Case Categories: Parochial Schools

• Agostini v. Felton (1997)

  Agostini v. Felton (1997) ruled that a New York program allowing public school teachers to provide remedial instruction in private schools did not violate the...

• Aguilar v. Felton (1985)

  Aguilar v. Felton (1958) said that New York had violated the First Amendment by paying public school teachers to teach low-income students in private religious...

• Board of Education v. Allen (1968)

  Board of Education v. Allen (1968) rejected First Amendment challenges and upheld a state law allowing loans of textbooks to all schoolchildren, including in...

• Carson v. Makin (June 21, 2022)

  The Supreme Court in Carson v. Makin ruled in June 2022 that Maine's tuition reimbursement program could not exclude parents who sent their children to...

• Cochran v. Board of Education (1930)

  Cochran v. Board of Education (1930) upheld a law against First Amendment challenges that allowed the state to give textbooks to students in parochial school...

• Committee for Public Education and Religious Liberty v. Nyquist (1973)

  Committee for Public Education and Religious Liberty v. Nyquist (1973) determined that a tuition and tax break program for parochial school parents violated the...

• Committee for Public Education and Religious Liberty v. Regan (1980)

  Committee for Public Education and Religious Liberty v. Regan (1980) said a law that gave funds to private, and religious schools, for testing did not violate...

• Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue (2020)

  The Supreme Court in 2020 ruled that states cannot create programs that exclude religious schools from programs that subsidize private schools with public money...

• Everson v. Board of Education (1947)

  Everson v. Board of Education (1947) said spending tax funds to bus children to religious schools did not breach the First Amendment establishment clause...

• Grand Rapids School District v. Ball (1985)

  In Grand Rapids School District v. Ball, the Supreme Court struck down two government education programs that employed parochial school teachers and facilities...

• Lemon v. Kurtzman I (1971)

  Lemon v. Kurtzman (1971) said the First Amendment prohibited government from providing funds to church-run schools. It established the Lemon Test for...

• Lemon v. Kurtzman II (1973)

  Lemon v. Kurzman II (1973) said the ruling prohibiting government from funding religious schools did not mean retroactive payments violated the First Amendment...

• Levitt v. Committee for Public Education and Religious Liberty (1973)

  Levitt v. Committee for Public Education and Religious Liberty (1973) said that payments to religious schools for state-mandated testing violated the First...

• Locke v. Davey (2004)

  Locke v. Davey (2004) said a scholarship program in Washington state that did not allow a student to major in theology did not violate his First Amendment...

• Meek v. Pittenger (1975)

  Meek v. Pittenger (1975) concerns an establishment clause challenge to state statutes that permitted its public schools to lend resources to nonpublic schools...

• Mitchell v. Helms (2000)

  In Mitchell v. Helms (2000), the Supreme Court rejected a longstanding establishment clause challenge to public funding of instructional resources for religious...

• Mueller v. Allen (1983)

  Mueller v. Allen (1983) found that a law allowing tax deductions benefiting parochial schools was not in violation of the establishment clause of the First...

• New York v. Cathedral Academy (1977)

  New York v. Cathedral Academy (1977) invalidated a state law to reimburse parochial schools because it violated the First Amendment by requiring excessive...

• Norwood v. Harrison (1973 )

  Norwood v. Harrison (1973) found a program that provided textbooks to private schools violated the Fourteenth Amendment but not the establishment clause of the...

• Pierce v. Society of Sisters (1925)

  Pierce v. Society of Sisters (1925), although never mentioning the First Amendment, has become an important precedent both for the rights of parents to educate...

• Sloan v. Lemon (1973)

  Sloan v. Lemon (1973) struck down a Pennsylvania law providing tuition reimbursement for children in private schools, finding it violated the First Amendment...

• Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia, Inc. v. Comer (2017)

  Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia, Inc. v. Comer (2017) used the free exercise clause of the First Amendment to rule that a state had improperly excluded a...

• Witters v. Washington Department of Services for the Blind (1986 )

  Witters v. Washington Department of Services for the Blind (1986) said a program that provided funds that a man used for religious education did not violate the...

• Wolman v. Walter (1977)

  Wolman v. Walter (1977) struck down parts of a law that provided funds to nonpublic schools, including religious schools, as a violation of the First Amendment...

• Zobrest v. Catalina Foothills School District (1993)

  Zobrest v. Catalina Foothills School District (1993) said the First Amendment did not prohibit a school district from providing a sign-language interpreter to...