The Dixon School Case (''Zellers v. Huff'') was a lawsuit started in 1948 in

New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Tiguex , OfficialLang = None , Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ke ...

contesting the use of

nun A nun is a woman who vows to dedicate her life to religious service, typically living under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience in the enclosure of a monastery or convent.''The Oxford English Dictionary'', vol. X, page 599. The term is o ...

s, religious brothers and priests as teachers in publicly supported schools under the

First Amendment to the United States Constitution The First Amendment (Amendment I) to the United States Constitution prevents the government from making laws that regulate an establishment of religion, or that prohibit the free exercise of religion, or abridge the freedom of speech, the ...

. The case involved thirty schools in eleven New Mexico counties, twenty-eight plaintiffs, two hundred defendants, and public expenditures to the schools of over $600,000 annually.Archer, Glenn L. (1 January 1949
"Personal Observations on the Dixon School Case"
''Liberty: A Magazine of Religious Freedom'' 44(1): pp. 12-13 Following on the heels of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in '' Everson v. Board of Education'', which applied First Amendment freedoms to state as well as federal law, the Dixon School Case was the first state case to implement

separation of church and state The separation of church and state is a philosophical and jurisprudential concept for defining political distance in the relationship between religious organizations and the state. Conceptually, the term refers to the creation of a secular sta ...

in public schools, and was watched with interest nationally.

History

Dixon, New Mexico Dixon is an Unincorporated area, unincorporated community located in Rio Arriba County, New Mexico, Rio Arriba County, New Mexico, United States, on New Mexico State Road 75, just east of New Mexico State Road 68, in the north-central part of t ...

in 1941, the school board closed the public school and recognized the parochial St. Joseph's Catholic School as the only public school in the jurisdiction.

Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...

parents complained to no avail, and then formed the Dixon Free Schools Committee under the leadership of one Lydia Zellers. After getting nowhere with state and local officials, the group filed suit in April 1948. The dispute had become broader than just the Dixon school district and included twenty-nine other schools across the state. The first named defendant was Raymond Huff, the chairman of the New Mexico Board of Education. The defendants included

Governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

Thomas J. Mabry, as well as 145 priests, nuns and brothers of Catholic religious orders.Staff (27 September 1948) "Dixon School Suit Opens in Santa Fe" ''The Gallup Independent'' page 1, column 3 The initial trial was held on September 27 to October 7, 1948, in the district court in Santa Fe, New Mexico, before Judge E. Turner Hensley of Portales. Judge Hensley ruled that the teachers and administrators had failed to uphold the separation of church and state and that the religious teachings and settings had significant indoctrinating influence on the students. After additional hearings in spring 1949 he granted an injunction against the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

prohibiting 139 named religious members from teaching in state schools.Staff (15 February 195
"Dixon Case"
''The Baptist Messenger'' p. 15Staff (22 June 1949) "Catholic Orders Barred From NM Public Schools - Judgment Climaxes Dixon School Case" ''El Paso Herald-Post'' page 1, column 4 The church appealed to the

New Mexico Supreme Court The New Mexico Supreme Court is the highest court in the U.S. state of New Mexico. It is established and its powers defined by Article VI of the New Mexico Constitution. It is primarily an appellate court which reviews civil and criminal decisio ...

which upheld Judge Hensley's rulings in September 1951,The Guardian News Commentator (15 December 1951
"Dixon School Case Closed"
''The Presbyterian Guardian'' p. 238 but broadened the ruling to include a prohibition against wearing religious garb as a teacher, doctrinaire textbooks in public schools, public transport to parochial schools, and publicly provided textbooks in parochial schools. Both the Catholic Church and the state of New Mexico declined to take an appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States.Staff (20 December 1951) "No Appeal Dixon School Case" ''The Baptist New Mexican'' page 10

History

Notes

Further reading