Everson v. Board of Education - Timeline Event
Time Period
02-10-1947
Description
Everson v. Board of Education (1947) marked the first time that the Supreme Court had applied the federal Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the states, following the precedent set in Cantwell v. Connecticut (1940). The decision also was important because of Justice Hugo Black's majority interpretation of the Establishment Clause, which he argued acted as a "wall of separation" between religion and state. The case itself concerned reimbursements to parents who used public buses to send their children to parochial schools. The court held, however, that in this particular case the reimbursements did not violate the Establishment Clause because their primary goal was to protect children from dangerous traffic en route to school, not to support religion.
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Photographs
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First Amendment inscription, cropped- Wikimedia Commons- photo by Robin klein (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Justice Hugo Black- Library of Congress, LC-USZ62-33516
Amicus Curiae breif for Everson v Board of Education- National Archives and Records Administration
Chief Justice Fred Vinson- US Government photo
Book/Journal Source(s)
Flowers, Ronald, 2005. That Godless Court? Supreme Court Decisions on Church-State Relationships, 2nd ed. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press.Web Page Contributor
Robert MartinAffliated with: Assistant Professor, Southeastern Lousiana University
