Coffey v. State Educational Finance Commission

This class action was brought by Negro school children and their parents, residents of Mississippi, against the Educational Finance Commission of that state. The suit challenges the constitutionality of state tuition grants to Mississippi children between the ages of six and twenty-one attending private, nonsectarian schools. 1

The United States intervened as a party plaintiff under 42 U.S.C. § 2000h-2 (§ 902 of the Civil Rights Act of 1964) and Fed.R.Civ.P. 24, and joined the State of Mississippi as an added defendant. Several minor children who are receiving tuition grants have intervened as…