Opinion
No. 32041
Decided February 15, 1950.
Supreme Court — Dismissal — No debatable constitutional question involved — Application by members of Jehovah's Witnesses to use public school auditorium — For public religious meetings — Denial of application by board of education — Mandamus proceeding by sect members against board to compel such use — Denial of writ — Claims of board — Application not by responsible organization or by at least seven citizens — Section 4839-1, General Code — Other places in district available — Teachings of sect opposed to school teachings — Diversion of public funds to religious worship purposes — Sect's claims — Application, although by less than seven, on behalf of full congregation — Offer to pay expenses and damages — Some controversial tenets personal and not programmatic — Meetings nonexclusive and public — Sect not biblically religious — Other organizations permitted similar use of school — Compulsion to support place of worship — Section 7, Article I, Constitution — Freedom of speech, assembly and worship — Equal protection — Articles I and XIV, Amendments, U.S. Constitution.
APPEAL from the Court of Appeals for Wood county.
Mr. Hayden C. Covington and Mr. Victor F. Schmidt, for appellants.
Messrs. Bowman, Hanna Middleton and Mr. Floyd A. Coller, for appellees.
It is ordered and adjudged that this appeal as of right be, and the same hereby is, dismissed for the reason that no debatable constitutional question is involved.
Appeal dismissed.
WEYGANDT, C.J., MATTHIAS, HART, ZIMMERMAN, STEWART, TURNER and TAFT, JJ., concur.