West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette

Table of Contents

Overview

Context

About the Author

Explanation and Analysis of the Document

Impact

Document Text

https://doi.org/10.3735/9781935306870.book-part-037

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Abstract

West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette was a landmark decision holding that the free speech rights guaranteed by the First Amendment to the Constitution protect public school students from being compelled to salute the American flag or to recite the Pledge of Allegiance. The Court’s decision is celebrated as one of the Court’s most forceful defenses of free speech rights, calling them “beyond the reach of majorities and officials.” Barnette overruled a decision on the same issue, Minersville School District v. Gobitis, issued just three years earlier, in 1940. The decision was a victory for the Jehovah’s Witnesses, whose religious beliefs forbade them from pledging or saluting symbols such as the flag. Felix Frankfurter, Owen Roberts, and Stanley F. Reed dissented.