# State Ex Rel. Holcomb v. Armstrong

> Washington Supreme Court · January 10, 1952 · 39 Wash. 2d 860

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9550221

## Case

- **Full name:** The State of Washington, on the Relation of Maurice S. Holcomb, as Guardian Ad Litem, Appellant, v. Grant Armstrong Et Al., Respondents
- **Court:** Washington Supreme Court
- **Decided:** January 10, 1952
- **Citations:** 39 Wash. 2d 860; 239 P.2d 545; 1952 Wash. LEXIS 259
- **Precedential status:** Published
- **Opinion:** Dissent by Finley
- **Judges:** Olson, Hamley, Finley, Schwellenbach, Mallery, Hlll, Grady, Donworth, Weaver
- **Cited by:** 29 later opinions in the Frix Law Library

## Citator (automated)

- No negative treatment found by the automated citator. That is not the same as a confirmation that the case is good law; read the citing cases.
- Full citator and citing cases: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9550221

## Opinion text

Finley, J.
(dissenting) — Very few cases involving claimed violations of constitutional religious liberties or rights can be examined with the mathematical exactness accorded the present appeal by the dissenting opinion. The coldly impersonal, unemotional, mathematical calculation there suggested, reducing the problem evil or menace to student health to a mathematical formula or relationship, is quite persuasive. Using (1) the University of Washington health officers’ statistics respecting the incidence of tuberculosis in the student population of the university for approximately a decade; and (2) an assumed figure or number representing students who might claim exemption from X-ray examination because of their adherence to the Christian Science religion (and the assumed figure appears reasonable to me, certainly in the absence of more definite information in the record); thereupon, the alleged evil or menace to student health appears to fall short of the “clear - and-present-danger” standard. As stated in the dissent, if the present incidence of tuberculosis continues on the campus, X-ray examinations of all of the assumed number of students who are Christian Scientists might uncover one active case of tuberculosis every seven and one-third years. For the foregoing and other reasons discussed by Judge Hamley, I concur in his dissenting opinion.
February 27, 1952. Petition for rehearing denied.

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Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9550221. Public record. Not legal advice.