The court held that the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment protects students from being forced to salute the American flag or say the Pledge of Allegiance in public school. law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/t…
Background: Tension has long existed between those who believe mandatory flag saluting & pledges of allegiance encourage patriotism & strong civic consciousness - vs those who believe that it goes against their personal and religious beliefs.
One religious group in particular has been involved in legal challenges that have helped to define the rights of Americans in this respect. Jehovah's Witnesses refuse to salute flags because their religious beliefs include a literal interpretation of Exodus, Ch 20, verses 4 & 5.
They consider that the flag is an 'image' within this command. Many Witnesses feel the salutes and pledges amount to idolatry—putting a country above God. Other Americans who are not Jehovah's Witnesses also object on similar grounds.
In the US, children of some Jehovah's Witnesses were expelled from school, threatened with expulsion, or sentenced to reformatories for refusing to salute the American flag. Parents were prosecuted for contributing to delinquency by allowing this refusal.
For example, in 1927, parents in Seattle lost custody of their 10-year-old son when he refused to salute the flag as required by his public school. flic.kr/p/2aMrPKq
In the 1930s, Jehovah’s Witnesses in Germany began refusing to salute Nazi flags after the Nazis came to power. The Nazi government began arresting thousands of Jehovah's Witnesses who refused to salute the Nazi flag and sent them to concentration camps.
Here in the US, in 1935, 9-year-old Carlton Nichols was expelled from school & his father arrested in Lynn, Massachusetts, for refusing to salute the flag. That same year, one of Betsy Ross’ own descendants was expelled from a public high school for refusing to salute the flag.
In 1936, the KKK sent “two good brothers in sheets” to picket in front of the store of a merchant in Atlanta when his 12-year-old daughter would not salute the flag in her public schoolroom. flic.kr/p/2aRThhi
In 1940, a group of Witnesses was confronted by a mob in Odessa, Texas, & 40 of them jailed until they would salute the flag. A month later, in Mooresville, Indiana 50 Witnesses were held hostage by a mob of 300 because they refused to salute the flag.
In 1938, the Gobitas family in Minersville, Pennsylvania was taken to court for allowing their children to abstain from the pledge and the salute. The family won in the lower court on the grounds that they were freely exercising their religious beliefs.
The school district appealed and ultimately the case was heard by the US Supreme Court in April 1940. In an 8-to-1 decision, the US Supreme Court upheld the mandatory flag salute, declining to make itself "the school board for the country."
As the US entered World War II, nationalistic sentiments led to increased assaults on Jehovah’s Witnesses over these issues as they were singled out for being unpatriotic. The ACLU recorded at least 40 “mob attacks” on Jehovah’s Witnesses, including lynchings.
There were several instances of discrimination and attacks right here in TN. In 1941, the Houston County, TN school board barred a group of Jehovah’s Witness children from school when they refused to salute the flag.
In 1942, a family in Chattanooga was reported to the FBI & expelled from school for refusing to salute. In 1943, a Witness meeting in Bristol, TN was attacked by the local citizens with rocks, car tires slashed & overturned & a riot ensued that the TN State Guard had to quell.
It was partly because of the violent effect of its decision and to widespread disagreement in the legal community, the Supreme Court’s ruling in the 1940 Minersville case did not stand for long. A case came out of West Virginia that would overturn the decision.
The Barnett family of Charleston, West Virginia did not comply with a law requiring a flag salute. Their daughter and son were expelled from school and they sued. Their case went to the US Supreme Court as a challenge to the 1940 Minersville decision.
On June 14, 1943, the Court their 6-3 decision. It seems purposeful that the Court released its decision on Flag Day. Several of the justices who had decided Minersville reversed themselves to change the law in the Barnette case.
The opinion by Justice Robert Jackson is considered to be one of if not the greatest defenses of freedom of expression ever formulated by a Supreme Court Justice. It warned that, "Those who begin coercive elimination of dissent soon find themselves exterminating dissenters."
The First Amendment rights articulated by the Barnette case are the same ones exercised by Colin Kaepernick and others who refuse to salute, stand, or otherwise "honor" the flag the way some want them to. They are exercising the rights that our Flag stands for.
#HappyFlagDay
#HappyFlagDay
