U.S.S.C. to hear Affordable Healthcare Act appeal

Given the scorecard meted out by the appeals circuit, it’s no surprise to learn that the United States Supreme Court has agreed to rule on the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Public Law 111–148).  Although the legislation isn’t due to go into effect until January 1, 2014, opening arguments have been scheduled for March 2012.  The largest and broadest legal challenge to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act comes from a joint filing by 26 states, led by Florida. 

The cases accepted Monday are Dept. of Health and Human Services v. Florida (11-398); NFIB v. Sebelius (11-393); and Florida v. HHS (11-400).  Court reporter Lyle Denniston has written an excellent blog post analyzing the court’s agenda on healthcare reform.  All documents related to the three cases can be viewed here.

 

 

“The Lord Is Not On Trial Here Today”: the inside story of McCollum

Commonly recognized as one of the most important and landmark first amendment cases in U.S. history, McCollum was the first United States Supreme Court case to clearly define the separation of church and state in a public school setting.  Specifically, the People of the State of Illinois ex rel Vashti McCollum v. Board of Education of School District No. 71, Champaign County, Illinois, et al. (333 US 203) addressed the power of a state to utilize its tax-supported public school system in aid of religious instruction insofar as that power may be restricted by the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the Federal Constitution.  

In her historic mandamus action, plaintiff Vashti McCollum successfully challenged the constitutional validity of the sectarian “released time” program that had been implemented in her son’s school.  Because the program used public school resources (namely hours and facilities) to inculcate the religious tenets of Christianity in children whose attendance in the Champaign district public schools was mandatory under state law, Mrs. McCollum believed the program to be unconstitutional.  Furthermore, she charged that the pressure to participate in religious instruction classes by his teacher and classmates was so great as to be socially and psychologically detrimental to her eldest son, James Terry McCollum.

In his book The Lord Was Not on Trial: The Inside Story of the Supreme Court’s Precedent-Setting McCollum Ruling, Dannel McCollum recalls the tumultuous events of 1945 to 1948 and the trial’s lasting impact on his family.  Similarly the film The Lord Is Not On Trial Here Today tells the personal story behind the case, recounting what Vashti McCollum later described as “three years of headlines, headaches, and hatred” which eventually led to a decision that still resonates in the church-state conflicts of today, more than 60 years after the original decision.  Available in the law library’s collection, both the book and movie provide an intimate perspective of the parties involved in McCollum vs. Board of Education.