Celebrating 65 Years Of The McCollum Ruling
Sixty-five years ago today, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down one of its most important church-state decisions.
The 8-1 ruling in McCollum v. Board of Education ended a practice in the Champaign, Ill., public schools of allowing ministers to come onto the campus during the day to offer sectarian instruction.
The decision is important because it marked the first time the high court ruled that the public schools could not be in the business of promoting religion to students. It paved the way for the 1962 and '63 rulings striking down official school prayer and Bible reading.
Writing for the majority in McCollum, Justice Hugo Black scored "the use of tax-supported property for religious instruction and the close cooperation between the school authorities and the religious council in promoting religious education."
http://www.talk2action.org/story/2013/3/8/112936/6135/Front_Page/Awesome_Anniversary_Celebrating_65_Years_Of_The_McCollum_Ruling