Meyer: A Constitutional Right of Parents to Control their Children’s Education
In Meyer v. Nebraska, decided on this day, the Supreme Court struck down a 1919 Nebraska law (passed on April 9, 1919) forbidding teaching in any language other than English in public or private schools in the state.
The law was a product of the World War I era hysteria against German-Americans and was particularly directed against parochial schools, where German was taught. Robert T. Meyer was arrested on May 25, 1920, for teaching at the Zion Parochial School, a one-room school in Hampton, Nebraska. The Court ruled that, under the Fourteenth Amendment, parents have a right to control the education of their children.
The decision created a pioneering but limited right to privacy. See also the decision in Pierce v. Society of Sister, decided on June 1, 1925, in which the Court struck down a KKK-sponsored law that would have closed Catholic parochial schools, also on the grounds of the rights of parents.
The Supreme Court issued a stronger affirmation of the right of parents to control their childrens’ education, under the free exercise of religion principle, in Yoder v. Wisconsin, on May 15, 1972.
The long-term effect of both the Meyer and Pierce decisions was to set in motion what would become a major transformation of America: the penetration of constitutional principles into every phase of American life.
The Court: “ . . . it is the natural duty of the parent to give his children education suitable to their station in life, ‘[and]’ . . . Mere knowledge of the German language cannot reasonably be regarded as harmful. Heretofore it has been commonly looked upon as helpful and desirable.”
Learn about today’s Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act: http://www.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/ferpa/index.html
Read: Shawn Peters, The Yoder Case: Religious Freedom, Education, and Parental Rights (2003)