Sunday, October 24, 2010

Nebraska's Struggle to ensure equality before the law

The story of Nebraska's struggle to ensure equality before the law for all citizens come to a crisis point when the Nebraska Legislation outlawed German as a language in school settings.

 On April 9, 1919, Nebraska enacted a statute called "An act relating to the teaching of foreign languages in the state of Nebraska," commonly known as the Siman Act. It imposed restrictions on both the use of a foreign language as a medium of instruction and on foreign languages as a subject of study.

Siman Act provided that "No person, individually or as a teacher, shall, in any private, denominational, parochial or public school, teach any subject to any person in any language other than the English language."  see, Meyers v. Nebraska, 262 U.S. 390 (1923)

http://www.oyez.org/cases/1901-1939/1922/1922_325

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