Facts
- Mississippi operated a statewide program (in place since 1940) purchasing textbooks and lending them free of charge to students in both public and private schools.
- After desegregation orders, private schools that were virtually all white increased in number, and students at such schools continued receiving state-supplied textbooks.
- The record included a private school that would not attest to having a racially nondiscriminatory admissions policy while still receiving textbooks for its students.
- Parents of Mississippi public schoolchildren sued state officials administering the program, alleging that lending textbooks to racially discriminatory private schools provided direct state support for segregated education.
- Plaintiffs sought injunctive relief barring distribution of textbooks to students attending private schools with discriminatory admissions policies.
- A three-judge federal district court upheld the program, reasoning the statute was not enacted to create segregated schools and that the aid was directed to students rather than schools.
Issues
- Whether the Equal Protection Clause permits a state to provide free textbooks to students attending private schools that discriminate on the basis of race.
- Whether lending textbooks to sectarian private schools violates the Establishment Clause, and how that analysis relates to equal protection limits on aid to discriminatory schools.
Decision
- The Supreme Court reversed and held unanimously that Mississippi may not provide free textbooks to students attending private schools that discriminate on racial grounds.
- The Court treated free textbooks as tangible financial assistance that benefits the recipient schools and materially supports their operation.
- The Court rejected the view that the program was constitutionally permissible merely because the statute was facially neutral and historically predated modern desegregation disputes.
- The Court indicated that the program, as applied to nondiscriminatory sectarian schools, did not violate the Establishment Clause.
- The Court approved tailoring relief through a certification process allowing continued participation by private schools that affirmatively show nondiscriminatory admissions policies and practices.
Legal Principles
- Private schools may lawfully exist and operate, but there is no constitutional entitlement to receive public assistance on the same terms as public schools regardless of racially discriminatory policies.
- A state must avoid not only operating a dual school system but also providing significant aid to institutions that practice racial or other invidious discrimination.
- “Student-directed” benefits can constitute constitutionally significant support for schools when the aid is essential to educational operations and effectively subsidizes the institution.
- Equal protection constraints on state assistance to racially discriminatory private schools are stricter than Establishment Clause limits on aid to sectarian schools, because racial discrimination permeates the educational process and cannot be treated as a separable, limited aspect of a school’s functions.
- Courts may craft injunctions that do not assume every private recipient is discriminatory, including procedures requiring schools to certify admissions policies and provide relevant enrollment data.
Conclusion
The Court held that Mississippi’s textbook-lending program violated the Equal Protection Clause to the extent it supplied free textbooks to students attending racially discriminatory private schools, because the state may not provide substantial assistance that supports or sustains private racial exclusion in education.