made it clear that applicants for citizenship now need not agree to perform any military service whatever, whether combatant or non-combatant. 15 School Aid The troublesome question of aid to church schools has received attention from the Supreme Court several times in the past few years. The Court unanimously expressed the opinion that the First Amendment compels the com- plete separation of church and state, and bans direct aid to religion. In the Everson case 12 the majority of the Court decided that payment of bus fares to parents of parochial school children was permissible since it was not aid to the school but to the parents. In the McCollum case 14 the Court decided that religious instructions given in school buildings violated the constitutional ban. But in the Zorach case 17 a majority of the Court, headed by Justice Douglas, upheld New York's "released time" program which permitted parents to have their children excused for religious instruction (given outside the school) for one hour a week. Justices Black, Frank- furter and Jackson wrote separate dissenting opinions. We quote from that of justice Jackson: "As one whose children, as a matter of free choice, have been sent to privately supported Church schools, I may challenge the Court's suggestion that opposition to this plan can only be anti- religious, aesthetic, or agnostic. My evangelistic brethren confuse an objection to compulsion with an objection to religion. It is possible to hold a faith with enough confidence to believe that what should be rendered to God does not need to be decided and collected by Caesar." EDUCATION The Supreme Court has given protection to a right nowhere mentioned in the Constitution: freedom of teach- ing. Hysteria of the First World War period produced laws prohibiting the teaching of German and other foreign languages. In a series of cases the Supreme Court held -71- |