Background:
- Context of national struggle in defense of culture, liberty, allies, et al. contra fascism
- Pre-declaration to the war, but strong support for Allies; mandatory pledges motivated by religious fervor
- Minersville, Pennsylvania as 90% Catholic
- Lillian (12) and William (10) Gobitis were expelled from the public schools of Minersville, Pennsylvania for refusing to salute the flag
- The Gobitis family is associated with Jehovah's Witnesses
- In doctrines of Jehovah's Witnesses, saluting the flag is idolatry, which is worship of a graven image or false idol
Supreme Court decision:
- Nearly unanimous; 8-to-1 decision
- Public schools can compel students to salute the American flag and recite the Pledge of Allegiance
- Frankfurter writes that district's interest in promoting national unity is sufficient reason to require students to salute the flag
- Eventually overruled three years later in West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette
Justice Stone dissenting:
- Civil liberty guarantees individuals think and speak freely
- "The guarantees of civil liberty are but guarantees of freedom of the human mind and spirit and of reasonable freedom and opportunity to express them ... The very essence of the liberty which they guarantee is the freedom of the individual from compulsion as to what he shall think and what he shall say..."
Judgment: Reversed
Key quotes:
- "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 citizens from the discharge of political responsibility." --Frankfurter (446)
- "We are dealing with an interest inferior to none in the hierarchy of legal values. National unity is the basis of national security." --Frankfurter (447)
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