Clashing Worldviews

Zobrest: Aid to All Students, or Only Those Attending Public Schools?

Jimmy Zobrest was deaf since birth. He attended school for the deaf for grades one through five, and then attended public school for grades six through eight. While attending public school, the school district provided him with a sign-language interpreter.

For Jimmy's high school years, his parents selected a Roman Catholic school, one that "inextricably intertwined" the "two functions of secular education and advancement of religious values." In fact, the high school's mission was to "instill a sense of Christian values," its "distinguishing purpose" was “the inculcation in its students of the faith and morals of the Roman Catholic Church.” Jimmy's parents asked the public school district to provide Jimmy with a sign-language interpreter like it had done in junior high school. The school district refused on the grounds that providing such aid would violate the First Amendment's prohibition on aiding religion.

Jimmy’s parents filed suit, arguing that the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) entitled them to this service and that by refusing this service, the school district was violating their rights to exercise their religion freely. Chief Justice Rehnquist wrote the majority decision to accommodate Jimmy in his secular and religious education, and Justice Blackmun wrote the principal dissent to deny Jimmy a publicly paid interpreter. The decision of each reflected his religious worldview on church-state relations.