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The Serpentine Wall: Judicial Decision-Making In Supreme Court Cases Involving Aid To Sectarian Schools, Christine Linton Compston

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation uses the cases involving aid to sectarian schools, decided between 1945 and 1985, as a vehicle for examining decision making by the Supreme Court justices. The discussion of Everson v. Board of Education (1947) relies heavily on the private papers of individual justices, autobiographies, and biographies to determine the importance of personal religious beliefs, the history of the First Amendment, political and judicial philosophies, as well as the efforts of specific individuals to persuade others to their positions. Board of Education v. Allen (1968) is analyzed within the context of the political environment, taking into consideration the government's …