California Teachers Assn. v. Riles

• Decision Date: 27 August 1981
• Citation: 176 Cal.Rptr. 300,29 Cal.3d 794,632 P.2d 953
• Court: California Supreme Court
• Parties: , 632 P.2d 953 CALIFORNIA TEACHERS ASSOCIATION et al., Plaintiffs and Appellants, v. Wilson RILES et al., Defendants and Respondents. L.A. 31358.

Page 300

176 Cal.Rptr. 300

29 Cal.3d 794, 632 P.2d 953

CALIFORNIA TEACHERS ASSOCIATION et al., Plaintiffs and Appellants, v. Wilson RILES et al., Defendants and Respondents.

L.A. 31358.

Supreme Court of California.

Aug. 27, 1981.

Mitchel J. Ezer, Allen M. Rosenthal, Fred Okrand, Los Angeles, Peter T. Galiano, Burlingame, Raymond L. Hansen, Kirsten L. Zerger, Salinas, and Diane Ross, San Francisco, for plaintiffs and appellants.

George Deukmejian, Atty. Gen., Philip C. Griffin, Deputy Atty. Gen., Thomas M. Griffin and Roger D. Wolfertz, Sacramento, for defendants and respondents.

Nancy Y. Bekavac and Munger, Tolles & Rickershauser, Los Angeles, as amici curiae on behalf of defendants and respondents.

MOSK, Justice.

These cases concern the constitutionality of sections 60315 and 60246 of the Education Code, which authorize the Superintendent of Public Instruction to lend without charge, textbooks used in the public schools to students attending nonprofit nonpublic schools, and which provide funds for that purpose. ¹

Plaintiffs challenge these provisions on the ground that they violate the establishment clause of the First Amendment to the UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION, ARTICLE IX, SECTION 8² of the California Constitution, which prohibits the appropriation of public money for the support of sectarian schools or schools not under the jurisdiction of the officers of the public schools, ³ and article XVI, section 5 of our state Constitution, which contains an even broader injunction, forbidding the Legislature to grant "anything to or in aid of" any church or religious sect, or "help to support" any school controlled by a church or a sectarian denomination. ⁴

The issues raised by plaintiffs have not previously been decided in this state. For the reasons set forth infra, we conclude that the statutes challenged by plaintiffs are unconstitutional because they violate the prohibition of article IX, section 8 and article XVI, section 5 of the California Constitution against the appropriation of money for the support of sectarian schools.

Plaintiffs are nonprofit corporations and residents and taxpayers of California. They filed two separate actions for declaratory and injunctive relief against the Superintendent of Public Instruction, the State Board of Education, and the Controller. The first challenged the constitutionality of section 60315 on its face, and the second alleged that the board administered the program in an unconstitutional manner.

The complaint in the first action (No. C-48751) alleged that parochial schools are the primary beneficiaries of the textbook loan program, that these schools have as their purpose the propagation and promotion of the doctrines of a particular religious faith, and conduct their operations to fulfill religious purposes, impose religious restrictions on what can be taught, and blend sectarian and secular instruction. It is further alleged that although section 60315 refers to the loan of books, that terminology is a subterfuge to allow the state to accomplish indirectly what it may not do directly. The complaint continues: the program constitutes a subsidy of public funds to religious schools because it reduces the cost of books to such schools, and it deprives the public school system of funds for its operation. Finally, it is alleged that the cumulative effect of the textbook loan program results in an excessive entanglement between government and religion; secular and religious training in parochial schools are intertwined, and the textbooks furnished by the state are instrumental in teaching religion because the teachers construe the material in the books in a sectarian fashion. Plaintiffs sought a declaration that section 60315 is unconstitutional, and an injunction to prohibit defendants from complying with the provision.

After a trial at which testimonial and documentary evidence was received, the trial court found in favor of defendants, holding that section 60315 is constitutional on its face. The court refused to determine the validity of the practices under which the program is administered, on the ground that the complaint in the first action did not challenge the method of implementation.

However, the trial court directed that a second action be filed challenging the validity of the administration of the program, and following judgment in the first case, plaintiffs filed a second complaint (No. C-216450) asserting that the program was administered in an unconstitutional manner. The complaint in the second action contained many of the same averments made in the prior pleading, but added detailed allegations describing the implementation of the program. Plaintiffs sought a declaration that these administrative practices are unconstitutional, and an injunction to restrain the State Board of Education from continuing to administer the program in the manner described. The evidence received at the first trial was introduced in the second action, and additional evidence regarding administrative practices of the board was received. The trial court rendered judgment in favor of defendants in the second action as well. The two actions have been consolidated on appeal.

The evidence at the trial in the first case showed that in 1975, 87 percent of the schools participating in the textbook loan program were religious schools, and that schools operated by the Catholic Church comprised 63 percent of the participating schools and 72 percent of the participating religious schools.

The opinion in Bowker v. Baker (1956) 73 Cal.App.2d 653, 657, 167 P.2d 256, to which we shall refer in more detail in a later portion of this opinion, and which involved a statute affording free transportation to students of private schools, explained that the reason it referred to transportation of students attending only Catholic schools was "because of the necessity for exactness in description under the evidence." A similar situation obtains in the present case; in stating the facts, we are compelled to focus on the allegations of the complaint and the evidence admitted at the trial, which centered on characteristics of schools sponsored by the Catholic Church. However, plaintiffs' target in this action, as they made clear at oral argument, is the textbook loan program as it benefits all religious schools, including those operated by various Christian fundamentalists, Jewish, Buddhist, and other denominations.

From the inception of the program in the 1973-1974 academic year to the 1976-1977 year, the cost of the program increased from almost $1.5 million to more than $2 million.

The Catholic schools which participate in the program offer instruction in secular subjects, but they also have as their purpose the teaching of the tenets of their faith. Some of these schools give preference to enrolling Catholic pupils; more than 97 percent of the students attending such schools are Catholic. The schools ordinarily require students to receive religious instruction, attend religious services during the school day, and participate in prayers and religious ceremonies. Sectarian symbols and pictures are distributed throughout the schools' buildings. The teachers in these schools are for the most part members of the church.

In order to obtain books under the textbook loan program, the parents of the students must sign a general request for textbooks. The names of the books requested are entered on the form by the schools and, in the case of the Catholic schools in Los Angeles, the form is then forwarded to the archdiocese office which, after being assured that the texts requested by the schools are on the approved list of the archdiocese, forwards them to the State Department of Education. The books are shipped directly to the schools, retained by them, and distributed in successive terms to students whose parents sign a request for books. Redistribution continues by the school until the books are worn out or their contents are obsolete. In the latter event, they are not returned to the state, but may be disposed of in any way the religious school sees fit. These specific procedures are not mandated by statute, but have been devised by the State Board of Education to implement the loan program. Public school districts follow a similar procedure for obtaining, distributing and disposing of textbooks, except that the parents of public school pupils are not required to sign a loan request.

A religious school which does not participate in the loan program purchases textbooks and charges the parents of pupils a rental fee for the books. The program here at issue relieves the schools which receive books from the state of the necessity to include these books in their budgets, and thus reduces the rental fee charged to the parents by the schools.

In the first action, the trial court concluded that the textbook loan program has a clearly secular legislative purpose and does not involve the expenditure of public money for the direct benefit of sectarian schools, and that any benefit to such schools, though substantial, is only indirect and incidental. It concluded further that the program does not call for official involvement in the affairs of religious schools resulting in a direct, immediate, and substantial effect of promoting religious purposes.

The court found that plaintiffs had failed to prove the following allegations of their complaint: that the religious schools conduct their operations to fulfill religious purposes, impose religious restrictions on what can be taught, and blend secular and sectarian instruction, that the budget of the religious schools whose pupils benefit from the program is reduced by the same amount as the cost of the books to the state, an expense which the religious schools would otherwise be required to bear, and that the requirement of section 60315 that the books be lent to nonpublic schools is a subterfuge to allow the state to do indirectly what it...