Minersville School District V. Gobitis Case

At times in schools, there could be disagreements and disputes between the decisions of government and the rights of individuals. Students attend school in order to become well-educated young adults. The schoolteacher’s main objective is to make sure that students are receiving the maximum amount of learning to prepare them for future endeavors. Schools educate students on citizenship and what it means to live in a democracy. Public schools are under the Bill of Rights and the Fourteenth Amendment, which gives citizens protection of their individual liberties from governmental interference. Public school officials must obey the demands of the Constitution. The Supreme Court ruled in the 1943 case West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette
Gobitis case. Lillian and William Gobitis came home from school and told their parents that they had been expelled from their school in Minersville Pennsylvania because they did not salute to the American flag during the morning announcements. The Gobitis family belonged to the Jehovah’s Witnesses, which bans any act that is like worshipping an image or idol, which is an offense against God. Walter Gobitis, Lillian and William’s father, asked the Minersville School Board to excuse his children from the flag-salute requirement. When the Board refused, Gobitis removed his children from the public school and enrolled them into a private school, which did not require the patriotic requirements. He then sued in the federal district in Philadelphia to stop the school board from requiring children to salute to the flag. Gobitis argued that his children’s rights to religious liberty under the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution were violated. The lawyers of the Minersville School Board disagreed that the flag-salute requirement was a way to teach good citizenship and that it was a “secular regulation” that had nothing to do with religion and everything to do with patriotic education. They also argued that if they let students opt out of the patriotic ceremonies, it would conflict with the school’s responsibility to promote national loyalty and unity. However, the Court voted
Barnette asked the federal district to stop enforcement of the requirements of the patriotic exercises. A three-judge panel granted Barnette’s request. Judge John J. Parker stated that the flag-salute requirement was “violative of religious liberty when required of persons holding the religious views of the plaintiffs.” After the board’s decision, no more Jehovah’s Witnesses were expelled from schools for not saluting to the flag. The decision was then appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court and by a 6-3 vote they ruled that it was unconstitutional for public school officials to require students to salute and pledge allegiance to the flag at the risk of expulsion from school on June 14th, 1943. “The Barnette Court couched its decision in language evoking freedom of speech. The choice to salute the flag was speech, the Court said, and the First Amendment protected individuals from compelled speech. It almost did not matter that the Jehovah's Witnesses had religious objections to pledging allegiance to the American flag; neither they, nor anyone, could be forced to verbally espouse beliefs they did not