Hering v. State Bd. of Educ.
| Decision Date | 05 February 1937 |
| Docket Number | No. 207.,207. |
| Citation | 189 A. 629 |
| Parties | HERING et al. v. STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION. |
| Court | New Jersey Supreme Court |
Certiorari by John Hering and Ella Hering anal children to the State Board of Education to review the expulsion of their children from a public school.
Order affirmed and writ dismissed.
Argued January term, 1937, before TRENCHARD, BODINE, and HEHER, JJ
Isserman & Isserman and Abraham J. Isserman, all of Newark, and Carol King, of New York City, for prosecutors.
George W. King, Jr., of Jersey City, for defendant.
By chapter 145, P.L. 1932, p. 260 (N.J. St.Annual 1932, § 185—230), every board of education in this state is obliged to procure a United States flag for each school in the district; the flag is to be displayed upon or near the public school building during school hours. It is also necessary to procure for each assembly room another flag which shall be displayed, and the pupils are required to salute the flag and repeat the oath of allegiance every school day. The precise language exacted in the school in question was as follows: "I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."
Prosecutors seek to review the expulsion of their children, ages five and seven, because of their refusal to salute the flag of the United States and pledge allegiance to the flag and republic when required so to do.
It is urged that the statute is invalid as infringing the constitutional and statutory guarantees of equal free schools for all the people. We think not. Those who resort to educational institutions maintained with the state's money are subject to the commands of the state. Hamilton v. Regents of University of California, 293 U.S. 245, 55 S.Ct. 197, 79 L.Ed. 343. The performance of the command of the statute in question could, in no sense, interfere with religious freedom. It is little enough to expect of those who seek the benefits of the education offered in the public schools of this state that they pledge their allegiance to the nation and the nation's flag. The pledge of allegiance is, by no stretch of the imagination, a religious rite. It is a patriotic ceremony which the Legislature has the power to require of those attending schools established at public expense. A child of school age is not required to attend the institutions maintained by the public, but is required to attend a suitable school. Those who do...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Minersville School Dist. v. Gobitis
...must. The decree of the District Court is affirmed. APPENDIX 1. Appellants' position is ostensibly sustained by Hering v. State Board of Education, 117 N.J.L. 455, 189 A. 629, affirmed per curiam, 118 N.J.L. 566, 194 A. 177, appeal dismissed 303 U.S. 624, 58 S.Ct. 752, 82 L.Ed. 1087; Nichol......
-
State v. Lundquist
...Education, 303 U.S. 624, 58 S.Ct. 752, 82 L.Ed. 1087 (1938) dismissing appeal from 118 N.J.L. 566, 194 A. 177, aff'g per curiam 117 N.J.L. 455, 189 A. 629 (1937); Leoles v. Landers, 302 U.S. 656, 58 S.Ct. 364, 82 L.Ed. 507 dismissing appeal for want of substantial federal question from 184 ......
-
Gobitis v. Minersville School Dist.
...them by the Fourteenth Amendment. We are aware that a number of courts have reached a contrary conclusion. Hering v. State Board of Education, 117 N.J.L. 455, 189 A. 629, affirmed 118 N.J.L. 566, 194 A. 177; Leoles v. Landers (Ga.Sup.) 192 S. E. 218; Nicholls v. Mayor and School Committee o......
-
Johnson v. Town of Deerfield
...last resort which had upheld as valid similar statutes. In Leoles v. Landers, 184 Ga. 580, 192 S. E. 218, and in Hering v. State Board of Education, 117 N.J.L. 455, 189 A. 629, the courts considered statutes in all material respects similar to the Massachusetts law. In both courts it was he......