Smith, v. Board of School Commissioners’s Empirical Analysis
827 F.2d 684 · 1987
Citation profile
25 federal appellate · 3 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 39 later decisions — most recently February 2019 · most notably National Association for the Advancement of Colored People v. Hunt G (1990), Sherman v. Community Consolidated School District 21 of Wheeling Township (1992)
25 federal appellate · 3 state decisions
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Relationships
Applies 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (Civil Rights Act of 1871 / Section 1983 (Ku Klux Klan Act))
Relies on McGowan v. State of Maryland Gallagher · Lemon v. Kurtzman · Harris v. McRae · School District of Abington Township Pennsylvania v. Schempp J Murray III · Everson v. Board of Education
Most-quoted passages
The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 39 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“the “Establishment” clause does not ban federal or state regulation of conduct whose reason or effect merely happens to coincide or harmonize with the tenets of some or all religions. In many instances, the Congress or state legislatures conclude that the general welfare of society, wholly apart from any religious considerations, demands such regulation. Thus, for temporal purposes, murder is illegal. And the fact that this agrees with the dictates of the Judaeo-Christian religions while it may disagree with others does not invalidate the regulation. So too with questions of adultery and polygamy. The same result could be said of theft, fraud, etc., because those offenses were also proscribed in the Decalogue.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the concurrence“While the Supreme Court has recognized that the State may not establish a religion of secularism in the sense of affirmatively opposing or showing hostility to religion, thus preferring those who believe in no religion over those who do believe, ... that Court also has made it clear that the neutrality mandated by the establishment clause does not itself equate with hostility towards religion.... Rather, the separation of church and state mandated by the first amendment rests upon the premise that both religion and government can best work to achieve their lofty aims if each is left free from the other within its respective sphere.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the concurrence“[G]iven the diversity of religious views in this country, if the standard were merely inconsistency with the beliefs of a particular religion there would be very little that could be taught in the public schools. As Justice Jackson has stated: Authorities list 256 separate and substantial religious bodies to exist in the ... United States.... If we are to eliminate everything that is objectionable to any of these warring sects or inconsistent with any of their doctrines, we will leave public education in shreds. Nothing but educational confusion and a discrediting of the public school system can result ....”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.