Nebraska court case laid the foundation for Roe vs. Wade City Edition

On Jan. 22, the 25th anniversary of one of the most high profile U.S. Supreme Court decisions -Roe vs. Wade, establishing a woman's right to a legal abortion -will be commemorated by celebrations, protests, marches, speeches and general discussion about personal privacy. On Feb. 23, the 75th an...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inLincoln journal star
Main Author Moody, Randall J
Format Newspaper Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Lincoln, Neb Lee Enterprises, Inc 20.01.1998
Subjects
Abortion
NE, USA
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Summary:On Jan. 22, the 25th anniversary of one of the most high profile U.S. Supreme Court decisions -Roe vs. Wade, establishing a woman's right to a legal abortion -will be commemorated by celebrations, protests, marches, speeches and general discussion about personal privacy. On Feb. 23, the 75th anniversary of the argument before the Supreme Court of another landmark case, Meyer vs. Nebraska, will likely be ignored but is no less important than Roe in guaranteeing a woman's liberty to have an abortion. When Robert T. Meyer, a father of five and a teacher at the Evangelical Lutheran Church school near Hampton, in Hamilton County, volunteered to be fined for teaching the story of Jacob's Ladder from a German Bible text to 10- year-old Raymond Parpart, he didn't realize he would be setting in motion a series of Supreme Court cases which would culminate in Roe. In the aftermath of World War I, several states, including Nebraska, passed laws forbidding the teaching of any subject in schools in a language other than English. The fear was that immigrant groups could not be assimilated into American life if they continued to speak their own language in school. This could be a threat to American sovereignty. Nebraska State Sen. Harry Siman introduced a bill that became law in 1919 which imposed a fine or jail term on anyone teaching a child in a foreign language until after he or she had graduated from the eighth grade. The Missouri Synod of the Lutheran Church used Meyer to challenge the law arguing that it violated religious freedom and parental rights. The Nebraska Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the law, saying that it was within the state's police powers to issue the ban. The U.S. Supreme Court disagreed. Writing for the majority, Justice James C.
ISSN:1084-5283