Must a public school student salute the flag during a recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance?
No. In a 1943 decision, West Virginia Board of Education v. Barnette, the U.S. Supreme Court determined that a group of Jehovah’s Witnesses who objected to the flag salute and mandatory pledge recitation for religious reasons could not be forced to participate. This means that public school students who choose not to join in the flag salute for reasons of conscience may not be compelled to recite the Pledge of Allegiance. The Court’s decision in Barnette was highly unusual, given that just three years earlier the Court ruled that students could be compelled to recite the Pledge in school. Writing for the 8-1 majority in the 1940 decision, Minersville School District v. Gobitis, Justice Felix Frankfurter had said: Even if it were assumed that freedom of speech . . . includes freedom from conveying what may be deemed an implied but rejected affirmation, the question remains whether school children . . .
No. In a 1943 decision, West Virginia Board of Education v. Barnette, the U.S. Supreme Court determined that a group of Jehovah’s Witnesses who objected to the flag salute and mandatory pledge recitation for religious reasons could not be forced to participate. This means that public school students who choose not to join in the flag salute for reasons of conscience may not be compelled to recite the Pledge of Allegiance. The Court’s decision in Barnette was highly unusual, given that just three years earlier the Court ruled that students could be compelled to recite the Pledge in school. Writing for the 8-1 majority in the 1940 decision, Minersville School District v.
No. In a 1943 decision, West Virginia Board of Education v. Barnette, the Supreme Court determined that a group of Jehovah’s Witnesses who objected to the flag salute and mandatory pledge recitation for religious reasons could not be forced to participate.1 This means that public school students who choose not to join in the flag salute for reasons of conscience may not be compelled to recite the Pledge of Allegiance. The Court’s decision in Barnette was highly unusual, given that just three years earlier the Court ruled that students could be compelled to recite the Pledge in school. Writing for the Court in the 1940 decision of Minersville School District v. Gobitis, Justice Felix Frankfurter said: Even if it were assumed that freedom of speech . . . includes freedom from conveying what may be deemed an implied but rejected affirmation, the question remains whether school children . . .
