The Supreme Court Ohio Annual Report
The Supreme Court Ohio Annual Report
The Supreme Court Ohio Annual Report
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<strong>The</strong> <strong>Supreme</strong> <strong>Court</strong> introduced a lecture<br />
series in 2009 designed to bring together<br />
the legal and judicial communities to<br />
explore topics of interest.<br />
Proposed by Administrative<br />
Director Steven C. Hollon,<br />
the Forum on the Law series<br />
kicked off in April 2009 with a<br />
recounting of the 1873 “Bible<br />
War” case that helped frame the national<br />
debate on church-state relations well into<br />
the 20 th century. In October, the focus<br />
turned to Washington with veteran journalist<br />
Tony Mauro’s observations on the seating of<br />
Justice Sonia Sotomayor.<br />
Cincinnati Bible War<br />
<strong>The</strong> Controversy. <strong>The</strong> Case. <strong>The</strong> Decision.<br />
Linda Przybyszewski, Ph.D. (pictured<br />
above), an associate professor of history<br />
at the University of Notre Dame, told the<br />
surprising story of an evangelical Calvinist’s<br />
efforts to have the Bible removed from<br />
Cincinnati public classrooms.<br />
Amid the increasing diversity and<br />
pluralism of the post-Civil War era, she<br />
explained, the Cincinnati public schools<br />
were faced with a growing Catholic<br />
population unhappy their children were<br />
instructed with the Protestant version of<br />
the Bible. <strong>The</strong> school board’s solution was<br />
to remove all Bibles from the classroom,<br />
which sparked a raging national controversy<br />
over the relationship between religion and<br />
government. In 1873, the <strong>Supreme</strong> <strong>Court</strong><br />
of <strong>Ohio</strong> put an end to the Cincinnati Bible<br />
War, upholding the board’s decision to end<br />
Bible reading in its schools.<br />
“Eventually, the pattern set by the <strong>Ohio</strong><br />
<strong>Supreme</strong> <strong>Court</strong> became the law of the<br />
land, and it all started in Cincinnati,”<br />
Przybyszewski said.<br />
“Ultimately the argument that prevailed<br />
was not that America is a secular nation, but<br />
rather the contrary,” she said. “Religious<br />
liberty and the idea of a Christian nation are<br />
not at odds, but in fact as one,” she said.<br />
Through the clouds of time, many have<br />
misunderstood the Bible War as a victory<br />
for secularism or a loss for Christianity,<br />
Przybyszewski said. In fact, she said, it was<br />
neither.<br />
<strong>The</strong> lecture, which drew an audience<br />
of almost 200, was co-hosted by the U.S.<br />
<strong>Supreme</strong> <strong>Court</strong> Historical Society.<br />
<strong>The</strong> U.S. <strong>Supreme</strong> <strong>Court</strong><br />
A New Justice. A New Term. A New <strong>Court</strong>.<br />
In October, Tony Mauro shared his view<br />
that the U.S. <strong>Supreme</strong> <strong>Court</strong> is moving<br />
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