Cases in Context – 2024-02: Zellers v. Huff, 1951-NMSC-072
Supreme Court Case Number: 5332
Parties:
Counsel:
Justices:
Holding: Teachers cannot teach sectarian religious doctrine in New Mexico public schools, nor wear religious clothing while teaching, nor use religious textbooks. Furthermore, churches cannot operate schools within New Mexico’s public school system.
Case Summary:
This case originated in the town of Dixon, in Rio Arriba County, New Mexico. Since 1941, the Rio Arriba County Board of Education (“the County Board”) had been renting St. Joseph’s School from the Roman Catholic Church (“the Church”) and paying Catholic Sisters to teach there. This school was the only one in the district. A group of mostly-Protestant residents of Dixon complained to the County Board about sectarian[2] religion being taught in a public school and requested that it create a school independent of the Church. The County Board declined to act and instead referred the residents to the State Board of Education (“the State Board”). The State Board did not resolve the issue to the full satisfaction of the parents and taxpayers of Dixon.
In 1948, Lydia C. Zellers and other Dixon residents sued Raymond Huff, Chairman of the State Board, in the First Judicial District Court in Santa Fe. The case was brought as a class action[3], ultimately including an additional twenty-four public schools in New Mexico with varying degrees of religious involvement. The plaintiffs sought to stop sectarian religious education and the employment of nuns, monks, and priests in public schools.
The trial court ruled that teaching sectarian doctrine[4] in the tax-supported schools of New Mexico violated Article 12 of the state constitution and the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Despite the trial court ruling in their favor, the plaintiffs appealed for further relief. The defendants cross-appealed, meaning that they sought to reverse the trial court’s decision.[5]
In the 1951 decision[6], the New Mexico Supreme Court separated the schools involved in the case into two groups. The first group was directly affiliated with the Church; the second was less so. Both school groups provided religious instruction, specifically in Roman Catholic doctrine. Similarly, in both groups, the priests, monks, and nuns named as defendants wore religious clothing while “school was in session.” Zellers v. Huff, 1951-NMSC-072, ¶ 4.
In its opinion, the New Mexico Supreme Court found that the trial court had erred when it denied the plaintiff’s request for an injunction[7] on the wearing of religious clothing during school activity, but affirmed most of the rest of the trial court’s findings. Specifically, the Supreme Court held that public school teachers could not provide sectarian religious education, nor utilize sectarian religious textbooks. Likewise, a church could not operate a school system within New Mexico’s public school system.
Sources for Further Reading:
[1] Amici Curiae: “Someone who is not a party to a lawsuit, but who petitions the court or is requested by the court to file a brief in the action because that person has a strong interest in the subject matter. — Often shortened to amicus. — Also termed friend of the court.” Amicus curiae, Black’s Law Dictionary (11th ed. 2019).
[2] Sectarian: “Of, relating to, or involving a particular religious sect; esp., supporting a particular religious group and its beliefs.” Sectarian, Black’s Law Dictionary (11th ed. 2019).
[3] Class action: “A lawsuit in which the court authorizes a single person or a small group of people to represent the interests of a larger group; specif. a lawsuit in which the convenience either of the public or of the interested parties requires that the case be settled through litigation by or against only a part of the group of similarly situated persons and in which a person whose interests are or may be affected does not have an opportunity to protect his or her interests by appearing personally or through a personally selected representative, or through a person specially appointed to act as a trustee or guardian.” Class action, Black’s Law Dictionary (11th ed. 2019).
[4] Doctrine: “A principle, esp. a legal principle, that is widely adhered to.” Doctrine, Black’s Law Dictionary (11th ed. 2019).
[5] Before the New Mexico Court of Appeals was created in 1966, such appeals went directly to the New Mexico Supreme Court.
[6] Another case with the same caption but a different citation was heard in 1953, Zellers v. Huff, 1953-NMSC-091.
[7] Injunction: “A court order commanding or preventing an action.” Injunction, Black’s Law Dictionary (11th ed. 2019).
Sources:
Former NM Supreme Court Justice James McGhee dies. Santa Fe New Mexican, May 14, 1970 Pg. 33.
Old Ways (Sigh) Gone from Politics. Santa Fe New Mexican, March 10, 1968 Pg. 25.
Huff graduated High School in San Angelo, Texas. Upon graduation he became a reporter for the San Angelo Daily Herald, a position he held till resigning in 1911 to enter the University of Texas at Austin. At the urging of his brother he came to Union County in 1914, teaching school in Des Moines for three years then entered the Army in 1918, serving two years being discharged as a Lieutenant. He married Vinny Johnson in 1919 at Canyon, Texas. The couple moved to Clayton in 1920 where he became superintendent of schools and served in that capacity till his retirement in 1950. He is credited with saving Union County during the depression days by having a school system built by the WPA, consolidating most of the smaller rural schools to the one in Clayton. In 1932 he purchased the "El Valle Escondide" ranch from Col. Jack Potter and later expanded his holdings to some 12,000 acres in northern Union County. Many Clayton High School Senior Class Picnics were held on his ranch. After his retirement as Superintendent of Clayton Schools he worked for three years for the Department of Indian Affairs at Fort Wingate, near Gallup, New Mexico where he was superintendent of the Navajo Indian Boarding School and eight rural day schools. The Huff's returned to live in Clayton after this assignment.”
Sources:
Mr. Huff and the WPA , PBS broadcast
Find a grave https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/16506480/raymond-huff
Marguerite Riordan, The Fabulous School That Saved A County, 1965.
“Lydia Cordova Zellers Zellers was born June 16th, 1906 in Dixon New Mexico. She married Raleigh “Doc” Zellers. In 1935 she and her husband opened Zellers General store. Zellers was the daughter of Rev. Eliseo C. Cordova of Dixon, a Presbyterian minister. She was active with the Ground Observer Corps, receiving an award in 1958. She taught at the Rinconda school house before it was closed. She died at the Hacienda De Salud Nursing Home in Espanola on November 7th, 1991." From: “Lydia Zellers.” Rio Grande Sun, 14 Nov 1991.
Sources:
“GOC Awards Are Presented.” Santa Fe New Mexican Newspaper Archives June 26, 1958 Page 14
“Closing of Zeller store ends a Dixon tradition.” Taos News. October 29, 1998 Page 1
“Lydia Zellers.” Rio Grande Sun, 14 Nov 1991.
Bigbee was from Encino, New Mexico and a graduated from the New Mexico Military Institutes in 1933. He completed his law degree at Southern Methodist University in 1942. He was assistant attorney general of New Mexico, a district judge, and as a private practice lawyer had multiple cases taken to the Supreme Court. He represented Clinton Jencks in a case where they were able to obtain secret FBI files. This ruling led to the Jencks Act which provide the defense access to government materials related to testimony for the prosecution. Bigbee died on June 2, 1999, in Pheonix, Arizona at the age of 84.
Sources:
New Mexico Military Institute, 1995-Judge Harry L. Bigbee, 1935 JC
"Mr. Fahy, son of the late Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Fahy, of Rome, is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame and of the Law School of Georgetown University. He practiced law in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and in Washington, D.C. before being appointed Solicitor General in 1941. In 1945 and 1946 he served as director of the legal decision of the U.S. Military Government in Germany, and later as legal advisor to the State Department. He is now engaged in the practice of law in Washington." From: Augusta Bulletin. October 23, 1948 Page 20
The POAU was founded in 1947, after the US Supreme court ruling in Everson v. Board of Education, that children could not take publicly funded school buses to parochial schools. A lawyer for this group, H. Hilton Jackson, aided in preparing the Zellers’v. Hoff case. “Protestants and Other Americans United has emerged in recognition of the fact that all non-Roman churches, of all faiths, are profoundly concerned over the present threat to religious liberty.” The group later changed their name to Americans United for the Separation of Church and State.
Sources:
“Ruling Against Sisters Teaching in Public Schools Issued by Judge in New Mexico ‘Church-State’ Case.” Augusta Bulletin. October 23,1948 Page 20
The POAU Manifesto as published in the Congressional Record.1948, pg 3597.
"Archbishop v. Redhead". Time. July 20, 1959. Archived from the original on February 1, 2011.
On January 1, 1802, Thomas Jefferson wrote a letter to the Danbury Baptists, which included the phrase, "a wall of separation between church and state." James Madison felt that the payment of chaplains with public funds violated the separation of church and state and wrote: “Strongly guarded as is the separation between Religion & Govt in the Constitution of the United States the danger of encroachment by Ecclesiastical Bodies, may be illustrated by precedents already furnished in their short history.” https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/religion/rel06-2.html
The freedom of religion was included in Article VI of the United States Constitution “no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.” The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution includes “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” This did not include education as the concept of common (public) schools would not gain popularity until the 1830s.
On February 12th, 1891, the New Mexico Legislature passed the An Act Establishing Common Schools in the Territory of New Mexico. This same year there was an attempt for a 16th amendment to the United States Constitution to prevent the state from funding organizations under ecclesiastical control. The amendment failed but was part of a continuing political trend to strengthen the separation of church and state. Such an amendment had been suggested by President Grant on December 7th, 1875.
In 1898, the Ferguson Act of 1898 specified "That the schools, colleges, and university provided for in this act shall forever remain under the exclusive control of said territory, and no part of the proceeds arising from the sale or disposal of any lands herein granted for educational purposes, or of the income thereof, shall be used for the support of any sectarian or denominational school, college, or university." Despite a legislative interest in having non-secular schools, the available teachers, and many of the established schools were founded by religious orders and missionaries.
School attendance was not compulsory in New Mexico until 1903, and this included attendance at private schools. In 1922, the state of Oregon tried to require attendance at public schools, leading to Pierce v. Society of Sisters, 268 U.S. 510 (1925) where the court found “The fundamental theory of liberty upon which all governments of this Union rest excludes any general power of the State to standardize its children by forcing them to accept instruction from public teachers only.”
The year before Zellers v Huff the Supreme Court of the United States heard Everson v. Board of Education, 330 U.S. 1 (1947), a case regarding the use of public school buses for children who attended private school. The court ruled “Although the Establishment Clause does require governments to avoid excessive entanglement with religion, it is permissible for a state to reimburse the costs of transportation for students in parochial schools.” The following year, in the case of McCollum v. Board of Education, 333 U.S. 203 (1948) the court found “Public schools cannot allow religious groups to use their facilities to provide religious instruction to children.”
To the Congress of the United State : a petition and a protest against sectarian appropriations for Indian Education, and especially against the increase of such appropriations / by the National League for the Protection of American Institutions. 1891
A Contest of Faiths; Missionary Women and Pluralism in the American Southwest. Susan M. Yohn. Cornell University press, 1995.
Education In New Mexico Has Long, Tenuous History By Rob Martinez
A history of education in New Mexico. Pertinent advice to students. Education and its relations to the discovery, conquest, civilization and colonization of New Mexico; the minister of God and the teacher, Reed, Benjamin M., Santa Fe, N.M, The New Mexican Printing Company, 1911.
“James Madison on Separation of Church and State.” Creating the United States. Library of Congress
Padre Martínez Saw New Mexico Through Many Changes By Rob Martínez
Public Education in New Mexico. John B. Mondragon, Earnest S Stapleton, ‘University of New Mexico Press. 2005
Religion and the Founding of the American Republic, Religion and the Federal Government, Part 2, Library of Congress
Religious Lessons' Catholic Sisters and the Captured Schools Crisis in New Mexico. Kathleen Holscher, Oxford University Press, 2012.
Sheldon Jackson, pathfinder and prospector of the missionary vanguard in the Rocky mountains and Alaska, by Robert Laird Stewart. 1908
The area that would become Embudo, and later Dixon, was taken under protest of the Pueblo of Picuris on July 19, 1725. The land was granted to Juan Marquis, Francisco Martin, and Lozaro de Cordova.
In the 1940 Census Dixon was listed as having 1,507 residents with 304 children under the age of 15. Many residents were farmers or worked in nearby mines. of the 122 homes, 118 did not have indoor toilets, and 103 did not have electricity. The war effort led to an increase in mining and the end of the war in 1947 saw a reduction in some markets.
The following excerpts are from Voices of Dixon.
The Great Depression and World War II brought many changes to the comm
unities. Many people traded crops, Emma Atencio remembered: "My parents used to grow everything, everything. We grew our own corn, our own wheat, alfalfa hay. We had chickens, geese, turkeys, cows, everything under the sun. We never had to buy food except coffee and sugar." The Work Progress Administration brought more jobs to the area and “the outside jobs with the W.P.A. made a difference. Then when we could get a little money from working, we could buy some of the things we needed, like clothes. People were better off!... Los Alamos Laboratory began hiring people from Dixon and the WPA closed down. Los Alamos made a big difference by giving people good paying jobs that lasted." (Amado Archuleta).
The development of a paved road led more people to the valley. Carl Berghofer recounted: “In about 1940 the road was paved from here to Taos, and bypassed the old road that went up the canyon. A lot of people moved in after World War II. …. When I first built this house, there wouldn’t be a car going by here but once an hour. More wagons went by than cars. That was in the Forties. From ten o’clock at night there wouldn’t be a car come by till daylight."
Brooklyn Cottage Hospital opened in 1914 by Presbyterian missionaries. (named for the Brooklyn Presbyterial Society). A new hospital was built three miles from Dixon in Embudo, and was opened in 1940. Nurse Faith Berhofer recalled:
"When I came to Embudo I was paid sixty-five dollars a month as a commissioned nurse, plus room and board. I lost my commission when I got married."
At the time of the Zeller case there were two options for school. George Zeller (son of Lydia Zeller) remembered:
"I went up to the sixth grade in the Mission School here. I remember all the teachers. All the guys here now who are my age all went there. When we were at school the public school was just getting started. There was just the Catholic School across the street and the Presbyterian Mission School. That was in the days when the Catholics and the Protestants didn’t get along. Now you look back and ask what was that all about? (Laughs) It doesn’t make sense. But it was great going to school at the Mission. The Mission teachers, just like the nuns in the parochial school, were all well educated people, from back east and all over. And coming here to Dixon was a Presbyterian Mission adventure."
Orchard of farmer at Dixon, New Mexico, July 1940. Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA, https://lccn.loc.gov/2017787265
Parkhurst, T. Harmon, Convent of Five Sisters of Saint Dominic, Saint Josephs School, Saint Anthony Church, Dixon, New Mexico, Palace of the Governors Photo Archive, New Mexico History Museum, Santa Fe, Neg. no. 069272
Embudo, New Mexico. Obstetrical case arriving at the Embudo Presbyterian Hospital, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print
Embudo Grant by J.J. Bowden.
The pastor of New Mexico : Peter Küppers's memoirs, Küppers, Peter, 1885-1957
This is Embudo hospital, Embudo Presbyterian Hospital (Embudo, N.M.) 1964
Voices of Dixon, Oral Histories from the Embudo Valley
Voices of Dixon is an oral history project featuring voices of residents of Embudo and Dixon.