CONSTITUTIONAL LAW-CHURCH AND STATE-DISTRIBUTION OF GIDEON BIBLE IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS

The Gideons International, a non-profit religious corporation, applied by letter to the Board of Education of the Borough of Rutherford, New Jersey, for permission to distribute free copies of the Gideon Bible to pupils of the public schools of that community. By resolution passed at a regular meeting of the board, permission was granted for distribution to pupils whose parents requested copies of the Bible. Prior to distribution, suit for injunction was commenced by parents of Jewish and Catholic pupils to determine the validity of the distribution under the federal and New Jersey constitutions. The trial court found for defendants.

On appeal, held, reversed. The Gideon Bible is a sectarian book, and the resolution of the Board of Education permitting its distribution in public schools is in violation of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution, as incorporated into the Fourteenth Amendment, and of article I, paragraph 4, of the New Jersey constitution. Tudor v. Board of Education, (N.J. 1953) 100 A. (2d) 857.