Meyer v. Nebraska

Facts

Nebraska passed a law in 1919 that barred anyone, in any private, denominational, parochial or public school, from teaching any subject in a language other than English. Section 2 allowed other languages to be taught as languages only after a pupil had passed the eighth grade. A violation was a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of $25 to $100 or up to thirty days in the county jail. Meyer was an instructor at Zion Parochial School, which a Lutheran congregation ran. On May 25, 1920, he taught reading in German to Raymond Parpart, a ten-year-old who had not passed the eighth grade. He used a collection of Biblical stories as the text. The State charged him under the statute and he was convicted. The Nebraska Supreme Court said the legislature had seen harmful effects when foreigners raised their children in the language of their native land. It said the aim was to make English the mother tongue of all children raised in the State. It also said the law burdened few citizens other than those of foreign lineage.

Issues

1. Does the Nebraska statute, as construed and applied to a teacher of German to a child who had not passed the eighth grade, unreasonably infringe the liberty guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment?
2. Can Nebraska justify the ban on foreign-language teaching by its wish to promote civic development and make English the mother tongue of all children raised in the State?

Holding

Nebraska's ban, as applied to Meyer's teaching of German to a young child, was arbitrary and had no reasonable relation to any end within the State's competency. It infringed the liberty the Fourteenth Amendment protects, and Meyer's conviction could not stand.