Nebraska law created by KKK forces nuns to remove habits in the classroom

'I could have been arrested, jailed, fined or had my license taken away if I had tried to teach.'

Sister Madeleine Miller applied for a teaching job at a Nebraska high school. Unbeknownst to her, a shocking, nearly century-old, law calls for her to remove all religious clothing before stepping foot on school grounds.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - The law bans all teachers from wearing anything related to religious garb.

On Tuesday, she explained how the vaguely-worded ban could have resulted in her arrest and more: "I could have been arrested, jailed, fined or had my license taken away if I had tried to teach."

The law was passed in 1919 after the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) pressured lawmakers in wake of the national anti-Catholic wave.

The law is almost never enforced in Nebraska but the school's administrator told Miller she could work for them on the condition she couldn't wear her habit in class.

When news of the incident spread, Jim Scheer, Speaker of the Legislature, decided to sponsor a repeal bill.

Thirty-six other had similar laws but most have since abolished them. Only two states - Nebraska and Pennsylvania - have yet to repeal them.

"This isn't virgin turf I'm tilling here," Scheer explained. "We're just one of the last ones."

Scheer spent nearly 20 years serving on a local school board and believes the ancient law in unconstitutional as it violates teachers' free-speech rights.

The proposal to repeal the Nebraskan law has faced little resistance, with the measure drawing plenty of support from religious groups and the American Civil Liberties Union of Nebraska (ACLU).

Spike Eickholt, an attorney for the ACLU of Nebraska, described current state law is so vague, it doesn't even define what religious garb is and is "blatantly unconstitutional."

"The problem is they are applicable only to religion," Eickholt stated. "A person could come to school as a teaching wearing maybe a flower power shirt or a Scooby Doo button or a 'Vote for Charlie' pin, but he can't wear a cross."

To make the appeal more pressing, the state Department of Education reported Nebraska has been experiencing teacher shortages.

Perhaps a repeal of the old law will help teachers like Sister Miller, who has her teaching certification, a bachelor's degree and a master's degree, find work within the state.

According to Church rules, all nuns must wear their habits nearly always, with exceptions when they are working in communist countries or cleaning with chemicals harsh enough to damage their garments.

Sister Miller said she only applied for a public school position because the state's Catholic schools were already fully staffed but when faced with the shocking law, she immediately considered filing a lawsuit.

Instead, she decided to apply elsewhere and was accepted at a Catholic school in Iowa while hoping lawmakers would work to resolve the issue on their own.

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