Minersville School District vs. Gobitis (1940) By Jesse Colon

Constitutional Issue The decision interfered with the First Amendment by making a law that violates someone’s religion. “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise…” – First Amendment

Litigant 1 description Minersville School District: 90% of school district was Roman Catholic, which already had high tensions with Jehovah’s Witnesses. Also around this time there was going to be a World War so people thought that not saluting the flag was unpatriotic.

Litigant 2 description Walter Gobitis: He had just become a Jehovah’s Witness around this time. He was inspired by other Jehovah’s Witnesses stories of challenging the system and didn’t want his children to pledge the flag because the Watch Tower Society president, Joseph F. Rutherford, stated in a witness convention that to salute an earthly emblem, ascribing salvation to it, was unfaithfulness to God.

Background of Case Lillian and William Gobitis were expelled from school because they did not salute to the flag. Their father then had to pay for them to enroll in private school. The case was argued on Thursday, April 25, 1940 and was decided on Monday, June 3, 1940.

Majority opinion: key points The court decision was 8-1 because the court ruled that the school’s interest in creating national unity was sufficient to allow them to require students to salute the flag. With Justice Frankfurter writing the majority opinion he stated: “ Conscientious scruples have not, in the course of the long struggle for religious toleration, relieved the individual from obedience to a general law not aimed at the promotion or restriction of religious beliefs. The mere possession of religious convictions which contradict the relevant concerns of a political society does not relieve the citizen from the discharge of political responsibilities….” – Justice Frankfurter

Other Court opinions In Justice Stone’s dissent, he argued that the court ruling represented a gross violation of he children’s religious liberties. “This law does more than suppress freedom of speech and more than prohibit the free exercise of religion, which concededly are forbidden by the First Amendment and are violations of the liberty guaranteed by the Fourteenth…” - Justice Stone

Significance The decision the court made described the case as a balancing of conflicting claims of liberty and authority. In their opinion, the school’s interest in creating national unity was more important than the rights of the students’ refusal to salute the flag.

My response to this case I did not agree with the decision the court made because it was unconstitutional and it violated the First Amendment which states: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion…”

Sources of information http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minersville_School_District_v._Gobitis http://atheism.about.com/library/decisions/religion/bl_l_MinersvilleGobitis.htm http://religiousfreedom.lib.virginia.edu/court/mine_v_gobi.html http://www.oyez.org/cases/1901-1939/1939/1939_690