Harvey H. Jackson v. State of California

Appellants brought this action seeking injunctive relief from the operation of California’s constitutional and statutory provisions limiting appropriation of public funds for education to the support of public schools. They seek to require the state to establish a system of “tuition grants’’ to parents of sehool-age children which the parents could then utilize to provide education for their children in nonpublic elementary and secondary schools. Appellants essentially contend that the present state provisions violate their right to free exercise of religion as granted by the First Amendment, and that they also violate the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. They sought the convening of a three-judge District Court. This was denied on the ground that no substantial federal question was presented, and judgment was rendered for the state.

The precise questions noted above which are presented by this appeal have been decided adversely to appellants by a three-judge District Court convened in the Eastern District of Missouri. Brusca v. Missouri ex rel. State Board of Education, 332 F.Supp. 275 (E.D.Mo. 1971). We have deferred decision in this case awaiting the…