Everson v. Board of Education

A New Jersey statute let school districts make rules and contracts for transporting children to and from school, including parochial schools; a local board's resolution reimbursed parents of children attending Catholic schools for public-bus fares under that authority. Everson (plaintiff), a taxpayer, challenged the resolution in state court as a violation of the First Amendment's Establishment Clause, made applicable to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment. New Jersey's highest court upheld the program, and the Supreme Court granted certiorari.