When the rhetoric is removed, it is clear that the students' lawyers were asserting that it is unconstitutional for school board members to resort to their own political, social, and moral views when making decisions affecting the curriculum. The courts did not agree. (Author/IRT)

This paper argues that courts have tended to identify and enforce individual rights at the expense, in many instances, of the ability of school boards and legislatures to carry out what they perceive to be the will of the majority of voters in their jurisdictions. The trend emphasizing individual rights began in 1954 with the Supreme Court…