Zorach v. Clauson

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Zorach v. Clauson
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued January 31 – February 1, 1952
Decided April 28, 1952
Full case name: Zorach, et al. v. Clauson, et al., constituting the Board of Education of the City of New York, et al.
Citations: 343 U.S. 306; 72 S. Ct. 679; 96 L. Ed. 954; 1952 U.S. LEXIS 2773
Prior history: Appeal from the Court of Appeals of New York
Holding
Court membership
Chief Justice: Fred M. Vinson
Associate Justices: Hugo Black, Stanley Forman Reed, Felix Frankfurter, William O. Douglas, Robert H. Jackson, Harold Hitz Burton, Tom C. Clark, Sherman Minton
Case opinions
Majority by: Douglas
Joined by: Vinson, Reed, Burton, Clark, Minton
Dissent by: Black
Dissent by: Frankfurter
Dissent by: Jackson

Zorach v. Clauson, 343 U.S. 306 (1952), was a case at the Supreme Court of the United States.

Under 3210 of the New York Education Law and the regulations thereunder, New York City permits its public schools to release students during school hours, on written requests of their parents, so that they may leave the school buildings and grounds and go to religious centers for religious instruction or devotional exercises. The same section makes school attendance compulsory; students not released stay in the classrooms; and the churches report to the schools the names of children released from public schools who fail to report for religious instruction. The program involves neither religious instruction in public schools nor the expenditure of public funds. Held: This program does not violate the First Amendment, made applicable to the States by the Fourteenth Amendment. McCollum v. Board of Education, 333 U.S. 203 (1948) , distinguished. Pp. 308-315.


(a) By this system, New York has neither prohibited the "free exercise" of religion nor made a law "respecting an establishment of religion" within the meaning of the First Amendment. Pp. 310-315.

(b) There is no evidence in the record in this case to support a conclusion that the system involves the use of coercion to get public school students into religious classrooms. Pp. 311-312.

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