Minersville School District v. Gobitis

Minersville School District v. Gobitis, 310 U.S. 586 (1940), argued 25 Apr. 1940, decided 3 June 1940 by vote of 8 to 1; Frankfurter for the Court, Stone in dissent. The first Flag Salute case, Minersville School District v. Gobitis, revealed the limits the Supreme Court of the liberal Roosevelt pre–World War II era still put on the religion clauses of the First Amendment (see Religion). The Court held that a Jehovah's Witness's child could constitutionally be expelled from public school for refusing to participate in the daily ceremony of saluting the American flag and pledging allegiance to it, even though saluting the flag or reciting the pledge violated the child's religious beliefs against serving gods other than the Almighty.

Admittedly, said Justice Felix Frankfurter for the majority, it is only when felt necessities of society compel it that the Constitution's free exercise provision can be overridden. But to say that freedom to follow religious conscience has no limits cannot be reconciled with American history.

National unity, he said, is the basis of national security. True enough, the flag is a symbol, but we live by symbols. To salute it is therefore a constitutionally allowable part of a school program, which may be made mandatory. A claim for exceptional immunity may be refused simply because granting it might weaken the effect of the exercise.

Although only Justice Harlan F. Stone dissented, three years later the decision was reversed, primarily on free speech grounds, in West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette.

Leo Pfeffer