Justice Robert Jackson wrote for the majority of the U.S. Supreme Court that reversed a three-year-old precedent.
Flag Day on June 14 will be the 75th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette. In that decision, the justices reversed the court’s three-year-old precedent that the state could force schoolchildren to say the Pledge of Allegiance and salute the flag—even if their religious views considered the pledge idolatry.
The Barnette decision was important because it helped end years of abuse Jehovah’s Witnesses suffered in the wake of the 1940 decision, Minersville School District v. Gobitis. It held religious freedom didn’t trump the school board’s ability to decide what’s best for achieving its goals.
