| Minersville School District v. Gobitis
|
Supreme Court of the United States
|
Argued April 25, 1940
Decided June 3, 1940
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| 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
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| 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.
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| Court membership
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| Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes
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| Associate Justices James McReynolds, Harlan Fiske Stone, Owen Roberts, Hugo Black, Stanley Reed, Felix Frankfurter, William Douglas, Frank Murphy
|
|
| Case opinions
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| Majority by: Frankfurter
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| Joined by: Roberts, Black, Reed, Douglas, Murphy
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| Concurrence by: McReynolds
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| Dissent by: Stone
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|
| Laws applied
|
| U.S. Const. Amend. I
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| 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 Gobitas (the name was misspelled), in which the court had held that Witnesses could be forced against their will to pay homage to the flag. This decision had led to increased persecution of Witnesses.
Gobitis was overturned by West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette in 1943.
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