Meyer v. Nebraska

Meyer v. Nebraska

Meyer v. Nebraska: Facts of the Case

Meyer v. Nebraska: The Court’s Ruling

Meyer v. Nebraska (full title Meyer v. State of Nebraska) (1923) was the first of three Supreme Court cases, the other two being Pierce v. Society of Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary (1925) and Wisconsin v. Yoder (1972), that shaped the right of parents, under the Fourteenth Amendment Liberty Clause, to direct the education of their children. In its first application of the Fourteenth Amendment’s Liberty Clause to education, the Court ruled in Meyer that the state exceeded its power in an unreasonable law dictating both to a teacher and to students’ parents the language that must be used in instruction.

Ralph D. Mawdsley

See also Fourteenth Amendment; Nonpublic schools; Parental Rights; Pierce v. Society of Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary; Wisconsin v. Yoder

Further Readings

• Mawdsley, R. (2003). The changing face of parents’ rights. Brigham Young University Education and Law Journal, 165.
• Mawdsley, R. (2006). Legal problems of religious and private schools. Dayton: OH: Education Law Association.

Legal Citations

• Meyer v. State of Nebraska, 187 N.W. 100 (Neb. 1922), 262 U.S. 390 (1923).
• Pierce v. Society of Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary, 268 U.S. 510 (1925).
• Wisconsin v. Yoder, 406 U.S. 205 (1972).