MEYER V.

NEBRASKA
262 U.S 390 (1923)
MCREYNOLDS, J.:

FACTS:

During and after World War I, immigrants, especially Germans, were looked at with suspicion,
and businesses and civic groups promoted the teaching of English and American values. In Nebraska,
angry citizens burned books written in German. In the context of that patriotic dedication, the state of
Nebraska passed the Foreign Language Statute. The 1919 law prohibited an instructor from using a
modern foreign language or teaching a foreign language to students in grades one through eight. Any
teacher violating the law was subject to a fine or jail term of not more than 30 days.
Robert Meyer was a teacher in Hamilton County, Nebraska, at the Lutheran Zion Parochial
School. In his class, Meyer used a collection of Bible stories written in German to teach reading to ten-
year old students. On May 25, 1920, the state found out and charged him for violating the language
law. Meyer was convicted in the district court of Hamilton. He then appealed to the Nebraska Supreme
Court, claiming his right to teach had been denied, a right guaranteed under the Due Process Clause of
the Fourteenth Amendment. Thereafter, the Nebraska court ruled that Meyer violated the statute.
On February 23, 1923, the Supreme Court heard Meyer's case and overturned the Nebraska
court's affirmation of the verdict.

ISSUE: Whether or not the statute is unconstitutional.

RULING:

The statute as applied is unconstitutional because it infringes on the liberty interests of the
plaintiff. The Court noted that Meyer taught German as part of his occupation. Under the Fourteenth
Amendment, Meyer had a right to work as a teacher, and the parents of his students had the right to
have their children taught in schools.
The Fourteenth Amendment encompasses not merely the freedom from bodily restraint but
also the right of the individual to contract, to engage in any of the common occupations of life, to
acquire useful knowledge, to marry, to establish a home and bring up children, to worship God
according to the dictates of his own conscience, and, generally, to enjoy those privileges long
recognized at common law as essential to the orderly pursuit of happiness by free men.
The state argues that the purpose of the statute is to encourage the English language to be the
native tongue of all children raised in the state. Nonetheless, the protection of the Constitution
extends to those who speak other languages. Education is a fundamental liberty interest that must be
protected, and mere knowledge of the German language cannot be reasonably regarded as harmful.