The New Jersey Superior Court today issued a temporary injunction restraining the Board of Education of the town of Rutherford from implementing its recent resolution to permit the Gideon Society to distribute the King James Protestant version of the Bible in the public schools of Rutherford.
The court ordered the Board to show cause why this injunction should not be continued pending final outcome of the case. A hearing has been set for February 29.
The action was brought by a Catholic and a Jewish parent of Rutherford who asked the court to rule that the proposed distribution was a legal infringement of the constitutional requirement that State and secular interests be kept separate and apart. This is the first court test of the legality of distribution of Gideon Bibles in public schools.
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