The Supreme Court Ohio Annual Report

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