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    Meyer v. Nebraska Case Digest

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    Ashreabai Kam Sinarimbo
    1) In the early 20th century, anti-immigrant sentiment led Nebraska to pass a law banning the teaching of foreign languages in schools. 2) A teacher, Robert Meyer, was charged under this law for teaching a German Bible story to students. 3) The Supreme Court ultimately ruled that the foreign language ban violated Meyer's right to teach under the 14th Amendment, finding that education is a fundamental liberty interest and knowledge of foreign languages is not reasonably regarded as harmful.

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    Meyer v. Nebraska Case Digest

    Uploaded by

    Ashreabai Kam Sinarimbo
    224 views2 pages
    1) In the early 20th century, anti-immigrant sentiment led Nebraska to pass a law banning the teaching of foreign languages in schools. 2) A teacher, Robert Meyer, was charged under this law for teaching a German Bible story to students. 3) The Supreme Court ultimately ruled that the foreign language ban violated Meyer's right to teach under the 14th Amendment, finding that education is a fundamental liberty interest and knowledge of foreign languages is not reasonably regarded as harmful.

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    MEYER V. NEBRASKA CASE DIGEST.docx

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    1) In the early 20th century, anti-immigrant sentiment led Nebraska to pass a law banning the teaching of foreign languages in schools. 2) A teacher, Robert Meyer, was charged under this law for teaching a German Bible story to students. 3) The Supreme Court ultimately ruled that the foreign language ban violated Meyer's right to teach under the 14th Amendment, finding that education is a fundamental liberty interest and knowledge of foreign languages is not reasonably regarded as harmful.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    224 views2 pages

    Meyer v. Nebraska Case Digest

    Uploaded by

    Ashreabai Kam Sinarimbo
    1) In the early 20th century, anti-immigrant sentiment led Nebraska to pass a law banning the teaching of foreign languages in schools. 2) A teacher, Robert Meyer, was charged under this law for teaching a German Bible story to students. 3) The Supreme Court ultimately ruled that the foreign language ban violated Meyer's right to teach under the 14th Amendment, finding that education is a fundamental liberty interest and knowledge of foreign languages is not reasonably regarded as harmful.

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    MEYER V.

    NEBRASKA
    262 U.S 390 (1923)
    MCREYNOLDS, J.:

    FACTS:

    During and after World War I, immigrants, especially Germans, were looked at
    with suspicion, and businesses and civic groups promoted the teaching of English and
    American values. In Nebraska, angry citizens burned books written in German. In the
    context of that patriotic dedication, the state of Nebraska passed the Foreign Language
    Statute. The 1919 law prohibited an instructor from using a modern foreign language or
    teaching a foreign language to students in grades one through eight. Any teacher violating
    the law was subject to a fine or jail term of not more than 30 days.
    Robert Meyer was a teacher in Hamilton County, Nebraska, at the Lutheran Zion
    Parochial School. In his class, Meyer used a collection of Bible stories written in German
    to teach reading to ten-year old students. On May 25, 1920, the state found out and
    charged him for violating the language law. Meyer was convicted in the district court of
    Hamilton. He then appealed to the Nebraska Supreme Court, claiming his right to teach
    had been denied, a right guaranteed under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth
    Amendment. Thereafter, the Nebraska court ruled that Meyer violated the statute.
    On February 23, 1923, the Supreme Court heard Meyer's case and overturned the
    Nebraska court's affirmation of the verdict.

    ISSUE: Whether or not the statute as applied infringes the liberty guaranteed to the
    plaintiff by the 14th amendment.

    RULING:

    Yes, the statute as applied infringes on the liberty interests guaranteed to the
    plaintiff. According to the 14th Amendment of the United States Constitution, no state
    shall deprive any person of life, liberty or property without due process of law.
    The Court noted that Meyer taught German as part of his occupation. Under the
    Fourteenth Amendment, Meyer had a right to work as a teacher, and the parents of his
    students had the right to have their children taught in schools.
    The Fourteenth Amendment encompasses not merely the freedom from bodily
    restraint but also the right of the individual to contract, to engage in any of the common
    occupations of life, to acquire useful knowledge, to marry, to establish a home and bring
    up children, to worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience, and,
    generally, to enjoy those privileges long recognized at common law as essential to the
    orderly pursuit of happiness by free men.
    Lastly, Education is a fundamental liberty interest that must be protected, and
    mere knowledge of the German language cannot be reasonably regarded as harmful.

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