In Minersville School District v. Gobitis (1940), the Court upheld the expulsion of two students from a public school for not saluting the American flag during the Pledge of Allegiance. The students claimed that as Jehovah’s Witnesses their religion forbade them from serving two masters. The Court did not agree.
In West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette (1943), the Supreme Court reversed itself and allowed a Jehovah’s Witness to refrain from saluting the flag without any subsequent punishment. The Court held that while “the State may require teaching by instruction and study in the structure and organization of our government, including the guaranties of civil liberty which tend to inspire patriotism and love of country,” it could not compel students to declare a belief in such principles.
The question here is often phrased as one of religious liberty, but shouldn’t this right to abstain from swearing to a belief have extended to everyone who did not feel like exhibiting patriotism? Wouldn’t it have been far better to view this case as a universal right than one particular to a specific religious viewpoint? Later cases seemed to bear this interpretation out, making enforcement of the speech clause as one concerned with equal treatment of the expression of all ideas, including religious ones. But at the time the case seemed to focus only on religious liberty.
