The Committee for Public Education and Religious Liberty (PEARL), in two separate federal court suits tried here today, argued that New York State could not give public funds to parochial schools directly or indirectly or “frustrate the judgment” of the federal court by maneuvers in state courts.
In one of the cases, PEARL v. Nyquist, PEARL contended that new forms of aid enacted by the legislature and signed by Gov. Rockefeller this spring were no more constitutional than those struck down in two federal court rulings earlier. In the second suit, PEARL v. Court of Claims, PEARL contended that a new law authorizing the state court to hear and judge parochial schools’ claims for money under the outlawed Mandated Services Act represented an unconstitutional challenge to the authority of the federal court.
The cases were heard consecutively in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York by a three judge federal panel composed of District Court Judges John M. Canella and Murray Gurfein and Court of Appeals Judge Paul Hays. PEARL attorney Leo Pfeffer argued for the plaintiffs in both cases.
Suits brought by PEARL in the past two years resulted in a January, 1972 decision striking down the state’s $33 million-a-year Secular Educational Services Act and a June, 1972 decision barring $28 million annually under the Mandated Services Act. The latter decision is being appealed by the state to the US Supreme Court.
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