Gobitis was inspired by stories of other Jehovah's Witnesses who challenged the system and suffered for it, and decided to make a stand himself. At first the school board was in a quandry because the law did not allow for punishment for those who refused to pledge. Finally, though, they got permission to punish the kids involved and immediately moved to expel them, without appeal.
This was a mostly Catholic area and Jehovah's Witnesses were not looked kindly upon. Tensions were already high before this case arose and many viewed this as one way to get back at the troublesome Witnesses. In the initial court proceedings, school superintendent Roudabush displayed characteristic contempt for the beliefs of the children, stating that he felt they had been "indoctrinated" and that the existence of even a few dissenters would be "demoralizing," leading to widespread disregard for the flag and American values.
Despite two stinging lower-court losses, the school chose to take its case to the Supreme Court, making essentially the same arguments which had failed before. In what is perhaps one of the Courts most embarrassing decisions, Justice Frankfurter wrote the 8-1 majority decision finding that the school district's interest in creating national unity was enough to allow them to require students to salute the flag.
According to Frankfurter, the nation needed loyalty and the unity of all the people. Since saluting the flag was a primary means of achieving this legitimate goal, an issue of national importance was at stake.
Although many Court opinions have provoked strong reactions, none have provoked such a wave of violence across the entire country. It is this which should, without question, demonstrate not only why the government should not get involved in either supporting or hindering religion, but why the government should not disparage any minority. By doing so, official sanction was given for people to vent anti-Witness feelings.
Hundreds of attacks were reported to the Justice Department in the two following years. Among the worst were the burning of a Kingdom Hall in Maine, police assisting a mob in Maryland in dispersing a Bible meeting, and nearly an entire town in Illinois attacking a group of Witnesses, which required calling in state police to protect them.
In West Virginia, a chief of police and deputy sheriff forced a group of Jehovah's Witnesses to drink large quantities of castor oil, tied them up with police department rope, and paraded them through town. In Nebraska, a Witness was kidnapped, beaten, and castrated. All of these acts - and many more like them - were traced directly back to the Gobitis ruling.
Justice Harlan Stone wrote a strongly-worded dissent to that ruling which became a primary basis of the reversal of this decision in West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette three years later. This time, Justice Jackson wrote the majority opinion, finding that the school district violated the rights of students by forcing them to salute the American flag.
Unlike the Court Decision in Gobitis, this Court did not declare that allowing an individual's rights to be supported over government authority is a sign of a weak government, and compulsion was not found to be legitimate means for creating national unity.
Jackson was also very clear that efforts to foster national unity through compulsion put minorities and dissenters at the mercy of "village tyrants" and "evil men," reflecting directly on the nation's recent experiences: "Those who begin coercive elimination of dissent soon find themselves exterminating dissenters. Compulsory unification of opinion only achieves the unanimity of the graveyard." Although those words were particularly relevant in 1943, they have lost none of their force.
This case is especially important because it underscores exactly what the Bill of Rights means. Justice Frankfurter had refused to protect First Amendment liberties against the actions of local government and electoral majorities. Justice Jackson, however, pointed out that that is exactly what the Bill of Rights exists for:
The very purpose of the Bill of Rights was to withdraw certain subjects from the reach of majorities and officials. One's right to worship, life, liberty, and property, to free speech, a free press, freedom of worship and assembly, and other fundamental rights may not be submitted to vote; they depend upon the outcome of no election.
We can thank religious minorities, and Jehovah's Witnesses in particular, for forcing the American court system to really deal with the concept of religious liberty. Because of them, our legal system was compelled to acknowledge that religious liberty existed for all people, not simply those who are part of sectarian majorities.
Note: Ask me again how I, or they, could possibly say they were ever persecuted!
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| Jehovah's Witnesses (about.com) Part 3 concluded |
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