Opinion ID: 1297458
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Does the appropriation violate art. I, sec. 18 of the Wisconsin Constitution and the first amendment of the United States Constitution?

Text: It is contended by the respondent that the appropriation to the medical school benefits a religious society because:(1) Marquette School of Medicine is a sectarian institution, and (2) prohibited benefits accrue to Marquette University which is a sectarian or religious institution. It may be assumed that Marquette University is a religious or sectarian institution, but there is no factual basis for concluding that the medical school, as now organized, is a religious institution, regardless of what tests might be used for such a determination, Marquette School of Medicine is a nonprofit corporation organized under ch. 181, Stats. Any association with Marquette University was eliminated in September of 1967. While it retains the name Marquette, it has dropped the word University and has ceased to operate as a department of the university. Also eliminated in its articles of incorporation were the requirements that the medical school be operated in harmony with the fundamental, ethical and educational principles established by Marquette University. The president of Marquette University no longer appoints the faculty of the medical school and the university has no power to discharge any member of the medical faculty. Also eliminated is the provision that assets of the medical school would revert to Marquette University upon dissolution. The articles now provide that these assets will revert to an organization consistent with the purposes for which the medical school is now organized and in accordance with ch. 181. All reference to Marquette University has been eliminated in the medical school's articles and the school is now empowered to establish its own standards and confer degrees. The board of directors no longer consists of any persons connected with Marquette University. Of its 16 members, seven are Protestant, five are Catholic, and three are Jewish. Of its faculty, four of its six deans are Protestant, one is Catholic, one is Greek Orthodox. Nine of the 17 department heads are Protestant, three are Catholic, three are Jewish, and two are not affiliated with an organized religion. Fifty-one percent of the 279 full-time faculty members are Protestant, 33 percent are Catholic and 16 percent are Jewish. The student's religion or lack of it is unknown to the admission committee of the school. Religion is not taught in the medical school but various ethical creeds and religious faiths are considered in seminars in relation to the practice of medicine. This is not a study of religion but even if it were so considered, the constitutions were not intended to prohibit the academic study of religion. See Katz, Religious Studies in State Universities, 1966 Wis. L. Rev. 297. The purpose of the medical school is to teach medicine. Thus when we consider stated purposes and practices, the makeup of its governing board, faculty and student body, the content of its teachings, and its relationship with a religious organization, as relevant factors, Marquette School of Medicine is nonsectarian. These factors, while not exclusive, have legal significance in determining the nature of an institution. See Horace Mann League v. Board of Public Works (1966), 242 Md. 645, 220 Atl. 2d 51. It is true there is a relationship between the medical school and Marquette University in the form of a joint program for some graduate study but the medical school also has joint programs and services with five other institutions: The Milwaukee County General Hospital, owned and operated by Milwaukee County; Milwaukee Children's Hospital, owned and operated by a nonprofit corporation devoted to care of children; the Veterans' Administration Hospital, a unit of the federal system; Milwaukee Psychiatric Hospital, owned by a private foundation; and the Curative Workshop of Milwaukee, Inc., a nonprofit corporation devoted to mental and physical rehabilitation and supported by the United Fund. The joint program with the Marquette University involves graduate courses taught by the medical school faculty for students enrolled in Marquette University. Such teaching of graduate courses is essential and necessary to a medical school. No modern medical school can maintain a basic science department and keep its science faculty unless graduate programs are also conducted. The highly qualified teachers on the staff will not remain if their teaching efforts are restricted to undergraduate science courses for conventional medical school education. The service performed by the medical school is not free to graduate students of Marquette University but is paid for by a proration of tuition. There are other minor connections such as a joint medical-dental library and the sharing of costs of teaching medical technology and physical therapy. At most, by way of argument, this is an incidental benefit to Marquette University. But it is argued that even an incidental benefit from the conduct of the joint programs is sufficient to be violative of art. I, sec. 18 of the Wisconsin Constitution. Respondent relies on State ex rel. Reynolds v. Nusbaum (1962), 17 Wis. 2d 148, 115 N. W. 2d 761, for the proposition that the primary-effect test adopted under the first amendment of the federal constitution by the United States Supreme Court has been rejected in Wisconsin. To violate the establishment clause of the first amendment, the purpose or primary effect of the legislation must be either the advancement or the inhibition of religion. This primary-effect test was first announced in Everson v. Board of Education (1947), 330 U. S. 1, 67 Sup. Ct. 504, 91 L. Ed. 711, and reiterated in Abington School Dist. v. Schempp (1963), 374 U. S. 203, 222, 83 Sup. Ct. 1560, 10 L. Ed. 2d 844, and Board of Education v. Allen (1968), 392 U. S. 236, 243, 88 Sup. Ct. 1923, 20 L. Ed. 2d 1060. We find nothing in Nusbaum inconsistent with the primary-effect test. On the contrary, the court was of the view the primary effect was a benefit to private schools rather than the declared legislative purpose that school-bus rides were for the safety of children. The majority of this court rationalized that because schoolbus service to parochial schools was not a governmental function, i.e., an educational objective, no benefit could be permitted to accrue to a private school. Granting that art. I, sec. 18 of the Wisconsin Constitution is more prohibitive than the first amendment of the federal constitution, it does not follow and we cannot read sec. 18 as being so prohibitive as not to encompass the primaryeffect test. In the case before us, the primary effect of the legislation is not the advancement of religion but the advancement of the health of Wisconsin residents.