Biklen v. BOARD OF EDUCATION, CITY SCHOOL DIST., SYRACUSE, NY

• Decision Date: 09 November 1971
• Docket Number: No. 71-CV-108.,71-CV-108.
• Citation: 333 F. Supp. 902
• Parties: Sari Knopp BIKLEN, Plaintiff, v. BOARD OF EDUCATION, CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT, SYRACUSE, NEW YORK, et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of New York

333 F. Supp. 902

Sari Knopp BIKLEN, Plaintiff, v. BOARD OF EDUCATION, CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT, SYRACUSE, NEW YORK, et al., Defendants.

No. 71-CV-108.

United States District Court, N. D. New York.

November 9, 1971.

Marvin M. Karpatkin, New York City (John E. Le Moult, New York City, Faith A. Seidenberg, Syracuse, N. Y., Burt Neuborne, New York Civil Liberties Union, New York City, of counsel), for plaintiff.

Edward P. Kearse, Corp. Counsel, Syracuse, N. Y. (James M. Anderson, Asst. Corp. Counsel, of counsel), for defendants.

Louis J. Lefkowitz, Atty. Gen., State of New York (Ruth Kessler Toch, Sol. Gen., John Q. Driscoll, Julius L. Sackman, Asst. Attys. Gen., Albany, N. Y., of counsel), intervenor, pro se.

Before MULLIGAN, Circuit Judge, FOLEY, Chief District Judge, and PORT, District Judge.

MULLIGAN, Circuit Judge:

Section 3002 of the New York Education Law, McKinney's Consol. Laws, c. 16, requires any United States citizen who serves as a "teacher, instructor or professor in any school or institution in the public school system of the state or in any school, college, university or other educational institution in the state, whose real property, in whole or in part, is exempt from taxation * * *" to take an oath or make an affirmation to support the federal and state constitutions and to perform his duties as a teacher to the best of his ability. In lieu of this oath or affirmation, the teacher may "pledge and declare" to the same effect.¹

The following facts are stipulated: In July, 1970 plaintiff, Sari Knopp Biklen, was accepted for appointment as a probationary teacher-intermediate at the Martin Luther King, Jr. School in Syracuse, New York. She started to teach in September, and in December she was notified that among the items missing from her personnel folder was the requisite support oath or affirmation. On December 17, plaintiff was suspended from her position when she informed the Director of Personnel of the City School District that her religious and conscientious beliefs prevented her from signing the required oath or affirmation. On December 21, she spoke with the Superintendent of Schools who advised her that that she would be permanently dismissed if the oath or affirmation was not signed by the end of the forthcoming Christmas vacation. On December 30, she notified the Superintendent that she would not sign the oath or affirmation because of her religious and conscientious scruples. He informed her that she would be permanently dismissed on January 19, 1971. By letter dated January 15, 1971, the Superintendent advised Biklen that she could "pledge and declare" and in so doing could continue in her position with no loss of pay. This, plaintiff declined to do. She appeared at a public meeting of the Board of Education held on January 19 and fully explained her position. After listening to her reasons the Board unanimously voted that she be discharged.

Counsel have further stipulated that the plaintiff was dismissed from her position solely because she declined to take the prescribed oath or affirmation and that this refusal "is based upon her most deeply held religious beliefs and that those beliefs stem from and are part of her Quaker religion."

Plaintiff commenced this action for injunctive and declaratory relief, challenging the constitutionality of § 3002 of the Education Law, alleging jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. §§ 1331, 1343(3) and 42 U.S.C. § 1983. A three judge district court was convened pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §§ 2281 and 2284.

The reasons why plaintiff objects to swearing or affirming are set forth in her personal statement which is attached as an exhibit to the complaint.² An examination of her statement reveals that her objections are obviously not only religious but secular as well. There has been historically staunch Quaker opposition to oath taking which has been voiced since George Fox himself refused to take the oath of allegiance in 1663.³ The resistance of Quakers and other religious sects to swearing is the basis for the alternative of affirmation explicitly sanctioned in both the federal and state constitutions and in the statute involved herein.⁴ There is no question that the plaintiff was afforded the opportunity in this case to make the affirmation which presumably would not be objectionable to the average Quaker conscience. However, it is clearly inappropriate to ruminate about the mixed socio-political, philosophical or personal objections of the plaintiff. She has stated that it is offensive to her religious convictions and that it may also offend her in other ways is not our concern.⁵ Neither are we concerned about her Quaker orthodoxy. It has been in fact stipulated and properly that her sincere religious conviction precludes affirmations as well as oaths and we should not and cannot avoid the issue by finding that her views on this subject are not shared by any, some, or all of her co-religionists.

With all respect for Sari Knopp Biklen's sincerity and conscientious conviction, we hold that her complaint must be dismissed. The constitutionality of this support oath has been repeatedly sustained by the Supreme Court of the United States against first amendment attacks by public school teachers. The first of these cases was Knight v. Board of Regents, 269 F.Supp. 339 (S.D.N.Y. 1967), aff'd per curiam, 390 U.S. 36, 88 S.Ct. 816, 19 L.E.2d 812 (1968), where this same statutory oath was sustained against a first amendment attack on free speech and association grounds. Rather than intimidation, plaintiff strangely finds encouragement in the opinion of Judge Tyler in the Souther District Court. In the Knight case, as in this, the plaintiff placed great reliance on West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624, 63 S.Ct. 1178, 87 L.Ed. 1628 (1943), where the court held unconstitutional a state statute requiring school children to salute and pledge allegiance daily to the flag of the United States. The Knight court properly observed that the pledge of allegiance in Barnette was far more elaborate than the affirmation required there⁶ and that the threatened criminal penalties were not at all comparable to the only sanction imposed, the loss of a teaching post.⁷ The court also observed that no claim of religious freedom was made in the case before it as a further reason for finding Barnette inapposite. To suggest that the court would have decided differently had a religious claim been made, overlooks the two other major distinctions which the court carefully advanced in finding Barnette inapposite. The court's conclusion in Knight is pertinent here:

"A state does not interfere with its teachers by requiring them to support the governmental systems which shelter and nourish the institutions in which they teach, nor does it restrict its teachers by encouraging them to uphold the highest standards of their chosen profession. Indeed, it is plain that a state has a clear interest in assuring `* * * careful and discriminating selection of teachers' by its publicly supported educational institutions. See Shelton v. Tucker, 364 U.S. 479, at 495-496, 81 S.Ct. 247, at 256, 5 L.Ed.2d 231 (1960), (dissenting opinion of Frankfurter, J.), see also majority opinion at 485, 81 S.Ct. at 250."

269 F.Supp. at 341-342.

The same support oath at issue here has also been tested by teachers in Colorado and Florida who claimed invasion of free speech and free association rights together with denials of due process and equal protection guarantees. In all of these cases the Supreme Court has affirmed the constitutionality of the oath. Hosack v. Smiley, 276 F.Supp. 876 (D. Colo.1967), aff'd per curiam, 390 U.S. 744, 88 S.Ct. 1442, 20 L.Ed.2d 275 (1968); Ohlson v. Phillips, 304 F.Supp. 1152 (D.Colo.1969), aff'd per curiam, 397 U.S. 317, 90 S.Ct. 1124, 25 L.Ed.2d 337 (1970) and Connell v. Higginbotham, 305 F.Supp. 445 (M.D.Fla.1969), aff'd per curiam (on this issue), 403 U.S. 207, 91 S.Ct. 1772, 29 L.Ed.2d 418 (1971).

While the attack in none of these cases has been bottomed on free exercise of religion grounds, it would appear clear that the oath is invulnerable to any attack on first amendment grounds. The Supreme Court has consistently held that the first amendment freedoms are closely intertwined. "This conjunction of liberties is not peculiar to religious activity and institutions alone. The First Amendment gives freedom of mind the same security as freedom of conscience." Thomas v. Collins, 323 U.S. 516, 531, 65 S.Ct. 315, 323, 89 L.Ed. 430 (1945). See also Baird v. State Bar of Arizona, 401 U.S. 1, 6, 91 S.Ct. 702, 27 L.Ed.2d 639 (1971); Schneider v. Smith, 390 U.S. 17, 25, 88 S.Ct. 682, 19 L.Ed.2d 799 (1968).

The support oath in issue here is uniquely constitutional since it is mandated by the United States Constitution itself. Article VI, cl. 3.⁸ This is the last clause of the Constitution and has historical significance as part of the supremacy doctrine. In Ableman v. Booth, 62 U.S. (21 How.) 506, 524-525, 16 L.Ed. 169 (1859), Chief Justice Taney stated:

"The Constitution of the United States with all the powers conferred by it on the General Government, and surrendered by the States, was the voluntary act of the people of the several States, deliberately done, for their own protection and safety against injustice from one another. And their anxiety to preserve it in full force, in all its powers, and to guard against resistance to or evasion of its authority, on the part of a State, is proved by the clause which requires that the members of the State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial officers of the several States, (as well as those of the General Government,) shall be bound, by oath or affirmation, to support this Constitution. This is the last and closing clause of the Constitution, and inserted when the whole frame of Government, with the powers hereinbefore specified, had been adopted by the Convention; and it was in that form, and with these

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