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McCollum v. Board of Education (1948)
was a landmark 1948 United States Supreme Court case related to the power of a state to use its tax-supported public school system in aid of religious instruction. The case was an early test of the separation of church and state with respect to education. -
Zorach v. Clauson (1952)
New York State law permitted schools to allow some students to leave school during school hours for purposes of religious instruction or practice while requiring others to stay in school. -
Flast v. Cohen
case holding that a taxpayer has standing to sue the government to prevent an unconstitutional use of taxpayer funds. -
Tinker v. Des Moines Independent School District (1969)
in December 1965, John and Mary Beth Tinker and their friend Chris Eckhardt wore black armbands to school in Des Moines, Iowa, to protest the war in Vietnam. School officials told them to remove the armbands, and when they refused, they were suspended (John, 15, from North High; Mary Beth, 13, from Warren Harding Junior High; and Chris, 16, from Roosevelt High). With their parents, they sued the school district, claiming a violation of their First Amendment right of freedom of speech. -
Walz v. Tax Commission of the City of New York
The Court held that grants of tax exemption to religious organizations do not violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. -
California Motor Transport Co. v. Trucking Unlimited,
One group of trucking companies sued another after defendants instituted state and federal proceedings to defeat applications for operating rights by the plaintiff companies. The Court reversed the district court’s dismissal of the case. Held: First Amendment rights are not immunized from regulation when they are used as an integral part of conduct violative of the antitrust laws. -
Bob Jones University v. United States (1983)
was a decision by the United States Supreme Court holding that the religion clauses of the First Amendment did not prohibit the Internal Revenue Service from revoking the tax exempt status of a religious university whose practices are contrary to a compelling government public policy -
Marsh v. Chambers
sued in federal court claiming that the legislature's practice of opening sessions with a prayer offered by a state-supported chaplain was in violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. The district court held that the prayer did not violate the Constitution, but that state support for the chaplain did. The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals held that both practices violated the Constitution. -
Edwards v. Aguillard (1987)
was a United States Supreme Court case concerning the constitutionality of teaching creationism. The Court ruled that a Louisiana law requiring that creation science be taught in public schools, along with evolution, violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment because the law was specifically intended to advance a particular religion. -
Texas Monthly, Inc. v. Bullock
was a case brought before the US Supreme Court in November 1988. The case was to test the legality of a Texas statute that exempted religious publications from paying state sales tax.
The Court, in a 6-3 decision lacking a majority, overturned an appellate court's decision that the exemption was constitutional and remanded the case. -
Rosenberger v. University of Virginia (1995)
was an opinion by the Supreme Court of the United States regarding whether a state university might, consistent with the First Amendment, withhold from student religious publications funding provided to similar secular student publications. -
Van Orden v. Perry (2005)
was a United States Supreme Court case involving whether a display of the Ten Commandments on a monument given to the government at the Texas State Capitol in Austin violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.
