Cochran v. Louisiana State Board of Education

Cochran v. Louisiana State Board of Education (1930) is one of two early cases wherein the Supreme Court of the United States dealt with the rights of students in religiously affiliated nonpublic schools. The other case was Pierce v. Society of Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary (1925). However, in neither dispute did the Court rely on the Establishment Clause in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

The controversy in Cochran arose when taxpayers challenged a law that taxed citizens for the purpose of furnishing school books to children, arguing that it violated not only their rights under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment but also their property rights. The Supreme Court dismissed the due process claim and addressed only ...