What US Supreme Court decision held schools could not force student to recite the Pledge of Allegiance?

West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette 319 US 624 (1943) In Barnett the US Supreme Court overturned its own decision, made three years earlier in Minersville School District v. Gobitis 310 US 586 (1940), that allowed public schools to force students to salute the American flag and recite the Pledge of Allegiance on the grounds that States were not required to excuse students from honoring the flag, even if individuals objected on the grounds of religious belief Jehovah's Witnesses, a Christian denomination at the center of both the Gobitis and Barnett cases, believed the practice was a violation of their religious beliefs because they considered saluting or pledging to a symbol (the American flag) a form of idolatry Following the Supreme Court decision in Gobitis, the State of West Virginia passed a law requiring all schools to teach classes in history, civics, and the US and State Constitutions in order to "perpetuate the ideals, principles, and spirit of Americanism."

The West Virginia Board of Education carried this mandate one step farther in January 1942 by adopting a resolution requiring all teachers and students to salute the flag and recite the Pledge of Allegiance on penalty of dismissal or expulsion Children expelled for failing to comply with the Board's rule were prevented from returning to school until they agreed to abide by the rule. In the interim, the child was automatically considered truant and could be sent to a reformatory, while parents were subject to criminal prosecution. The maximum legal penalty included a $50 fine and up to 30 days in jail Barnette, a Jehovah's Witness and parent of students in a West Virginia public school district, filed in US District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia for an injunction to restrain enforcement the regulations against Jehovah's Witnesses.In his complaint, Barnette cited the Church's religious belief in a literal interpretation of Exodus 20:4 and 5 the prohibited them from participating in the ceremony: Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; thou shalt not bow down thyself to them nor serve them The District Court found in favor of Barnett and issued an injunction against the Board.

The State Board of Education appealed the case directly to the US Supreme Court The Supreme Court, which had elevated Harlan Stone to Chief Justice and acquired two new justices in the brief period between cases, held that forcing students to salute the flag or recite the Pledge was a violation of the students' First and Fourteenth Amendment Rights. Rather than base their decision on the Free Exercise Clause (which may create exceptions, rather than broad protection*), the Court held the policy was a violation of the First Amendment Free Speech clause In the opinion of the Court, Justice Jackson wrote: Under the Federal Constitution, compulsion as here employed is not a permissible means of achieving "national unity and The freedom asserted by these appellees does not bring them into collision with rights asserted by any other individual.It is such conflicts which most frequently require intervention of the State to determine where the rights of one end and those of another begin. But the refusal of these persons to participate in the ceremony does not interfere with or deny rights of others to do so.

Nor is there any question in this case that their behavior is peaceable and orderly. The sole conflict is between authority and rights of the individual. The State asserts power to condition access to public education on making a prescribed sign and profession and at the same time to coerce attendance by punishing both parent and child.

The latter stand on a right of self-determination in matters that touch individual opinion and personal attitude and.

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