Pierce v. Society of Sisters

Background

A religious school run by the Society of Sisters and a private boys’ military academy sued after Oregon voters approved a law requiring children aged eight to sixteen to attend public schools. The schools say the law already caused pupils to withdraw, cut their income, and threatened their buildings, contracts, and long-standing educational programs. State and county officers announced they would enforce the law and the schools asked federal judges to stop enforcement to prevent irreparable injury.

Reasoning

The central question was whether the law unlawfully interfered with the right of parents to direct their children’s upbringing and with the schools’ property and business. Relying on earlier precedent, the Court found the law unreasonably interfered with parents’ liberty to choose where children are educated and that enforcing it would destroy the schools’ patronage and property. The Court treated the schools’ business and property interests as protectable and held the threat of enforcement justified immediate judicial relief, so the preliminary injunctions against enforcing the law were proper and not premature.

Real world impact

The decision prevents Oregon officers from enforcing the compulsory-public-school requirement against these private and religious schools and their patrons. It preserves parents’ ability to select private education and protects the schools’ contracts, property, and income that were already being lost. The ruling relies on constitutional protection of parental liberty and limits the State’s power to force all children into public schools.