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78 U. Det. Mercy L. Rev. 373 (2000-2001)
75 Years after Pierce v. Society of Sisters

handle is hein.journals/udetmr78 and id is 383 raw text is: COLLOQUIUM 75 Years After Pierce v. Society of Sisters RICHARD SEID I On November 7, 2000, Michigan voters were asked to approve a constitutional amendment to allow the state to dispense money to parents who send their children to private school, including schools sponsored by religious institutions. The initiative was defeated at the polls. Whether this indirect funding of private sectarian schools would have violated the First Amendment as an establishment of religion and therefore constitute an invalid policy is questionable. In a seemingly unrelated matter, this pastJune, the United States Supreme Court issued an opinion in Troxel v. Granville, which declared unconstitutional the decision of an Oregon trial court, which had decided pursuant to Oregon law that, in the best interest of the children, grandparents could visit their grandchildren against the wishes of the custodial surviving parent. Whether state courts should or could under some circumstances order grandparent or other third party visitation against the wishes of parents remains an open and complex policy and constitutional issue. Both of these situations involve the power of the state to affect and intrude on parental decision-making. There are many other Supreme Court opinions that address and attempt to appropriately balance the triangular relationship among state, child and parent. Two cases, Meyer v. Nebraska and Pierce v. Society of Sisters, decided in the 1920s articulate the premise that the state's power to interfere with a parent's right to raise and prepare a child for adulthood is significantly limited by the Constitution of the United States. The year 2000 marked the 75th anniversary of one of these cases, Pierce v. Society of Sisters, a case with a strange origin and surprisingly wide application, involving highly contentious and serious social, political, and legal issues. The Pierce case grew out of an attempt by two major interest groups in Oregon to prevent the creation of private schools as alternatives to public schools. One interest group, rooted in bigotry, was simply hostile to the prospect of religious I wish to thank PamJohnson for the research assistance she provided in connection with this piece.

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