| Jehovah's Witnesses & Religious Liberty | |
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Relevant Cases:
This issue centers on whether or not the government can force a child to salute the American flag. It is bizarre to think that the question is not settled and that lawmakers even today think that they can still attempt to do this, but it appears that the lessons of the two Supreme Court cases involved have not yet been learned.
Mandatory flag pledges in public schools were a product of war-inspired America, with the first appearing in several states during the Spanish-American war. Many more joined during World War I, with the recently formed ACLU tracking only a few dissents. It wasn't until World War II was drawing close that the practice was challenged directly in a way that rose through the court system.
In Minnersville School District v. Gobitis, two Jehovah's Witness school children, 10 and 12 years old, were suspended from school because they refused to salute the American flag during mandatory morning exercises. According to their beliefs, the Bible forbids having any false idols before God; and since all human governments are ultimately instituted by Satan, pledging to them would be a sin.
In a preview of what was to come, the children suffered horrible teasing, taunting, and attacks from the other kids. A local Catholic church started a boycott of the family store and business dropped off. Because of their eventual expulsion, their father had to pay for them to enroll in a private school, resulting in even more economic hardship.
What these bare facts fail to adequately describe is just how rancorous the situation really was. Gobitis (actually Gobitas, but a court clerk's error has made the altered name stick ever since) was only recently a convert to Jehovah's Witnesses. The national leadership had recently decided to make an issue of the forced pledges and asked people to stand up for their rights.
Jehovah's Witnesses who challenged the practice were accused of working with or being duped by German sympathizers - which is ironic, because many Jehovah's Witnesses in Germany were persecuted for refusing to pledge allegiance to Hitler. It is also ironic because, at the time, many flag pledges were done not with the right hand over the heart as they are today, but instead with an outstretched right hand which has now become associated with the "Sieg Heil" salute of the Nazis.
Gobitis was inspired by stories of other Jehovah's Witnesses who challenged the system and suffered for it, and decided to make a stand himself. At first the school board was in a quandry because the law did not allow for punishment for those who refused to pledge. Finally, though, they got permission to punish the kids involved and immediately moved to expel them, without appeal.
This was a mostly Catholic area and Jehovah's Witnesses were not looked kindly upon. Tensions were already high before this case arose and many viewed this as one way to get back at the troublesome Witnesses. In the initial court proceedings, school superintendent Roudabush displayed characteristic contempt for the beliefs of the children, stating that he felt they had been "indoctrinated" and that the existence of even a few dissenters would be "demoralizing," leading to widespread disregard for the flag and American values.
Despite two stinging lower-court losses, the school chose to take its case to the Supreme Court, making essentially the same arguments which had failed before. In what is perhaps one of the Courts most embarrassing decisions, Justice Frankfurter wrote the 8-1 majority decision finding that the school district's interest in creating national unity was enough to allow them to require students to salute the flag.
According to Frankfurter, the nation needed loyalty and the unity of all the people. Since saluting the flag was a primary means of achieving this legitimate goal, an issue of national importance was at stake.
Next page > Pledging the Flag (aftermath) > Page 1, 2, 3
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