Jewish Congress Challenges Pennsylvania’s School Bible-reading Law

Pennsylvania’s school Bible-reading law was challenged in U.S. District Court here today by the American Jewish Congress as “religious oppression ” barred under the U.S. Constitution.

Lawyers for the Jewish organization presented arguments in supporting two parents who seek to upset a State law calling for reading of “at least ten verses from the Holy Bible at the opening of each public school day, by the teacher in charge. ” Defendants in the case are the school district of Arlington Township, near here, and its four members.

Chief Judge John Biggs of the Third Judicial District presided at today’s hearing, which followed a three-day trial concluded late in November and the filing of briefs by both sides. The AJC had filed a brief as “friend of the court. ” Leo Pfeffer of New York, director of the AJC Commission on Law and Social Action, advanced three main arguments challenging the validity of the Pennsylvania statute:

1. By requiring school children to commit a devotional act, the statute violates freedom of religion and separation of church and state as guaranteed in the Bill of Rights.

2. By introducing sectarianism into the public school, the statute causes divisiveness animosity and jealousy. This affects all children but is particularly harmful to children of minority faiths.

3. By bringing government into a field where it is neither desirable nor necessary, the statute shifts responsibility for religious education from the home–where it belongs–to the school, where it does not.

The AJC official said it was clear the Pennsylvania law requires reading from the Bible as a “devotional” or religious act. He noted that the statute refers to the “Holy Bible, ” that it requires the reading to take place at the opening of each school day and that it forbids any comment on the verse read. The hearing was concluded today and decision reserved.