Doremus et al. v. Board of Education of the Borough of Hawthorne et al. (342 U.S. 429)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided March 3, 1952 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 342 U.S. 429 · 72 S. Ct. 394
- Docket
- No. 9
- Argued
- January 31, 1952
- Decided
- March 3, 1952
- Term
- October Term 1951
- Vote
- 6–3
- Majority author
- Justice Jackson (R.H.)
- Issue area
- Judicial Power
- Disposition
- Petition denied or appeal dismissed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party lost
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
How the Justices voted
- Majority
- Chief Justice Vinson, Justice Minton, Justice Clark, Justice R. H. Jackson (wrote), Justice Frankfurter, Justice Black
- Dissenting
- Justice Burton, Justice Douglas (wrote), Justice Reed
Opinion excerpt
Me. Justice Jackson delivered the opinion of the Court. This action for a declaratory judgment on a question of federal constitutional law was prosecuted in the state courts of New Jersey. It sought to declare invalid a statute of that State which provides for the reading, without comment, of five verses of the Old Testament at the Opening of each public-school day. N. J. Rev. Stat., 1937, 18:14-77. No issue was raised under the State Constitution, but the Act was claimed to violate the clause of the First Amendment to the Federal Constitution prohibiting establishment of religion. No trial was held and we have no findings of fact, but the trial court denied relief on the merits on the basis of the pleadings and a pretrial conference, of which the record contains meager notes. The Supreme Court of New Jersey, on appeal, rendered its opinion that the Act does not violate the Federal Constitution, in spite of jurisdictional doubts which it pointed out but condoned as follows: “No one is before us asserting that his religious practices have been interfered with or that his right to worship in accordance with the dictates of l\is conscience has been suppressed. . No religious sect is a party to the cause. No representative of, or spokesman for, a religious body has attacked the statute here or below. One of the plaintiffs is 'a citizen and taxpayer;’ the only interest he asserts…
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