Opinion ID: 1147963
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 13

Heading: Jurisdiction of Equity Court.

Text: The appellee teachers contend that apart from the question of administrative procedure, a court of equity has no jurisdiction to decree the individual defendants shall be forever barred from serving as teachers in the public schools of New Mexico, and that although the court may have had jurisdiction to enter the declaratory judgment and restrain the officials, it erred in forever barring appellees as teachers in the public schools. Certainly the State Board of Education, after hearing, could have revoked the licenses of the teachers it found had taught religion, but there was no likelihood of the board as then constituted ever taking such action, nor could there be any assurance future boards would not reinstate the violators. There is a presumption of law that officials will perform their duties, but the record in this case firmly establishes that the then state board was doing just the opposite in connection with the subject under discussion. The penalty is drastic but it is the only one provided by statute, and the trial court invoked it only against those who had committed the more flagrant violations. We affirm the action of the trial court in this regard, except as to those teacher appellees we hereafter find were entitled to a dismissal for want of proof. To declare otherwise would leave the people of New Mexico who oppose the teaching of sectarian doctrine in the public schools helpless.