Minersville School District v. Gobitis

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Minersville School District v. Gobitis

Supreme Court of the United States

Argued April 25, 1940
Decided June 3, 1940


Full case name:	Minersville School District, Board of Education of Minersville School District, et al. v. Walter Gobitis, et al.

Citations:	310 U.S. 586; 60 S. Ct. 1010; 84 L. Ed. 1375; 1940 U.S. LEXIS 1136; 17 Ohio Op. 417; 127 A.L.R. 1493

Prior history:	Judgment for plaintiffs, injunction granted, 24 F. Supp. 271 (E.D. Pa. 1938); affirmed, 108 F.2d 683 (3rd Cir. 1939); certiorari granted, 309 U.S. 645 (1940)

Subsequent history:	None

Holding

The First Amendment does not require States to excuse public school students from saluting the American flag and reciting the Pledge of Allegiance on religious grounds. Third Circuit reversed.

Court membership

Chief Justice: Charles Evans Hughes
Associate Justices: James Clark McReynolds, Harlan Fiske Stone, Owen Josephus Roberts, Hugo Black, Stanley Forman Reed, Felix Frankfurter, William O. Douglas, Frank Murphy

Case opinions

Majority by: Frankfurter
Joined by: Roberts, Black, Reed, Douglas, Murphy
Concurrence by: McReynolds
Dissent by: Stone

Laws applied

U.S. Const. amend. I

Overruled by

West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624 (1943)

Minersville School District v. Gobitis, 310 U.S. 586 (1940), was a U.S. Supreme Court case involving a Jehovah's Witness named Gobitis, in which the court had held that Witnesses could not be forced against their will to salute the flag. This decision had led to increased persecution of Witnesses.

Gobitis was overruled by West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette in 1943.