Wolman v. Walter

Wolman v. Walter (1977) 433 U.S. 229, involved an Ohio law providing, in part, funding for the lending of secular textbooks approved by the Superintendent of Public Instruction for use in public schools, to nonpublic school children, on request of the children or their parents, made to the nonpublic school. "In order to pass musters, a statute must have a secular legislative purpose, must have a principal or primary effect that neither advances nor inhibits religion, and must not foster an excessive entanglement with religion." ( P. 236.) While the court found that other sections of the act, having to do with instructural material and equipment , were unconstitutional, in view of the difficulty in separating the secular education function from the sectarian, it found no such problem with respect to the loan of secular school books.