95 Neb. 527 | Neb. | 1914
Lead Opinion
On the 18th day of August, 1911, John W. Gilbert and John M. Simmons filed their petition in the district court for Saline county, praying for a writ of mandamus to compel the school district board of district No. 13, of that county, composed of Charles Dilley, director, John Barney, moderator, and August Barney, treasurer, to keep the schoolhouse in that district closed to the public as a place of worship on the first day of the week, commonly called Sunday, and on other days. Relators moved the court to grant them an alternative writ of mandamus, as prayed for in their petition. The grounds on which the writ Avas sought were that the respondents had converted the schoolhouse into a place of Avorship, and had compelled the relators to support a place of Avorship against their consent, and contrary to the provisions of section 4, art. I of the constitution, which provides: “All persons have a natural and indefeasible right to Avorship Almighty God according to the dictates of their own consciences. No person shall be compelled to attend, erect or support any place of Avorship against his consent, and no preference shall be given by law to any religious society, nor shall any interference with the rights of conscience be permitted.”
An alternative writ was allowed, and respondents by their return admitted that on infrequent occasions they had permitted the public to use the schoolhouse for religious meetings, and that relators had demanded that they discontinue such use. Respondents alleged that John W. Gilbert was not a resident of said school district, but was only a taxpayer therein; that when the schoolhouse was built it was agreed that it might be occasionally used for holding' religious meetings; they also alleged that during the past five years not more than five meetings of that kind had been held in the schoolhouse in any one year; that no meetings of that kind had been held in said schoolhouse at night, or on any days except Sundays, during
The first question presented for our determination is: Have the respondents, by their acts, converted or permitted the sehoolhouse to be converted into a place of worship? The evidence discloses that for the five years last past there have been held in the sehoolhouse, in said district, Sunday sehool and religious meetings not more than four times each year; that such meetings have been held only on Sundays, and have in no way interfered with the scholars in the school work in said district; that relators have not attended nor been compelled to attend those meetings. And respondents contend that the meetings have not interfered with the rights of the relators, and were not of sufficient frequency to make the sehoolhouse a place of worship.
Section 3, art. I of the constitution of the state'of Iowa, provides: “The general assembly shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; nor shall any person be compelled
In Nichols v. School Directors, 34 Am. Rep. 160 (93 Ill. 61), it was said: “A statute authorizing school directors to grant the temporary use of public schoolhouses, when not occupied by schools, for religious, literary and other meetings, and for evening and Sunday schools, is not unconstitutional.” To the same effect is Scofield v. Eighth School District, 27 Conn. *499.
As we view the record, relators have failed to show that the respondents have converted or permitted the schoolhouse in question to be converted into a place of worship,
The next question for our determination is whether the relators have been compelled to attend, erect or support any place of worship against their consent. On that question the relator Gilbert testified that he did not live in the district, but paid about one-sixth of the taxes collected therein; that he could not tell how much additional tax he had been compelled to pay by reason of the religious meetings in question; that he had never figured it up; and he was unable to testify as to any items of expense due to those meetings; and he could not designate any particular item of expense occasioned thereby. Tha testimony of the relator John Simmons was to the same effect. In fact, the relators failed to show that they had been compelled to pay any sum whatever for the support of the meetings in question, or for the repair of the schoolhouse occasioned by such meetings. In fact, they failed to bring themselves within the inhibition of the constitutional provisions above quoted. If the relators had shown that the schoolhouse had been used for religious meetings to such an extent as to make it a place of worship, or that they had been compelled to pay anything for the erection, the support, or the repairs of the building for that pur- ■ pose, we might hold that they were entitled to the relief prayed for. But, failing to make such proof, it seems clear' that the judgment of the district court was right, and is
Affirmed.
Concurrence Opinion
concurring.
It must be conceded that any ■ use of the schoolhouse which prevents it from being used for school purposes is clearly objectionable. In this case religious meetings were had occasionally, but whether to such an extent as to establish the character of the building as a place of worship may well be doubted. I. do not think so. If the school officers should see fit to use the building for the purpose of hearing a lecture on geography, illustrated by maps and charts, there probably could be no good objec