Jewish Law - Legal Briefs ("Board of Education of the Kiryas Joel Village School District v. Grimet")

Jewish Law - Examining Halacha, Jewish Issues and Secular Law

Board of Education of the Kiryas Joel Village School District v. Grimet
New York Court of Appeals
(1993)

Nos. 93-517, 527, 539

In The
Supreme Court of the United States
October Term, 1993

BOARD OF EDUCATION OF THE
KIRYAS JOEL VILLAGE SCHOOL DISTRICT,

Petitioner,

LOUIS GRUMET and ALBERT W. HAWK,

Respondents.

ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI
TO THE NEW YORK COURT OF APPEALS

BRIEF OF
AGUDATH ISRAEL OF AMERICA
AS AMICUS CURIAE
IN SUPPORT OF BOARD OF EDUCATION OF THE
KIRYAS JOEL VILLAGE SCHOOL DISTRICT

INTEREST OF THE AMICUS CURIAE

Agudath Israel of America, founded in 1922, is a national grassroots Orthodox Jewish movement. As an advocate for Orthodox Jewish interests, and especially for the educational needs of Orthodox Jewish children, Agudath Israel has a great interest in both the outcome of this specific case and the Court's resolution of the broader thematic issues the case raises.

Many of the issues that affect Orthodox Jews in the United States arise along the boundary between church

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and state. This case is a good example. While its specific fact pattern is unique, some of its features are all too common: the refusal of local governmental entities adequately to accommodate the needs of minority religious communities; the frustration of a statutory mandate that all children, regardless of their religious background, receive education related services equitably; the diminution of religious freedom through an overly rigid application of the constitutional proscription against governmental establishment of religion.

The specific issue before the Court is the constitutionality of Chapter 748 of New York State's Laws of 1989, a remedy devised by the New York State legislature to resolve the impasse that had precluded the handicapped children of the Village of Kiryas Joel from receiving their statutory educational due. The Court's resolution of this issue is likely to have a profound impact not only on the handicapped Hasidic children whose educational future is directly at stake, not only on the broader community of Orthodox Jews whose strict observance of their faith frequently leads them to seek religious accommodations, but also on the numerous religious minority communities in this nation whose ways of life are jeopardized when governmental "neutrality" effectively translates into governmental hostility.

Agudath Israel's interest in this case extends also to the underlying cause for the impasse that led to the enactment of Chapter 748: this Court's rulings in Aguilar v. Felton, 473 U.S. 402 (1985), and School District of City of Grand Rapids v. Ball, 473 U.S. 373 (1985), which have had a devastating impact on many children in the Orthodox Jewish community and other faith groups. This case

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illustrates how far-reaching are the Felton / Grand Rapids aftershocks, and affords the Court an opportunity to reflect once again on the wisdom of the holdings in those cases.

Accompanying this brief is a letter dated January 4, 1994, by which counsel for petitioner Board of Education of the Kiryas Joel Village School District consented to the filing of an amicus brief by Agudath Israel in support of petitioners. By letter dated December 17, 1993, which is on file with the Court, counsel for all other parties have so consented as well.

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