Pennsylvania's 125-Year Ban on Teachers' Religious Garb

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 5
  In Roundtable Session: Law and Education Roundtable Session

Abstract

Pennsylvania currently bans public schoolteachers from wearing religious garb while teaching, a statute first enacted in 1895 in response to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling that held Catholic nuns were permitted to wear their habits while teaching in public schools. By the end of World War II, twenty-two states banned public schoolteachers from wearing religious garb in the classroom; today, Pennsylvania is the only remaining state with an anti-religious garb law. In other publications, I examine the constitutionality of this ban under the Free Exercise and Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. In this article, I examine its legality under Pennsylvania’s Religious Freedom and Protection Act of 2002.

Author

• Nathan C. Walker, 1791 Delegates