A pivotal moment in U.S. legal history, Minersville School District v. Gobitis, resulted in unexpected public outrage culminating in nationwide violence against Jehovah’s Witnesses. Decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1940, the case upheld a school board’s policy that expelled students for refusing to salute the American flag. This decision particularly affected Jehovah’s Witnesses, like 10-year-old William and 12-year-old Lillian Gobitas, who abstained from patriotic exercises due to religious objections rooted in their interpretation of the Book of Exodus.
Justice Felix Frankfurter, writing for the 8-1 majority, argued the importance of fostering unity and civil society over individual constitutional liberties, asserting that changes to such laws should occur through political avenues rather than judicial mandates. However, Justice Harlan Fiske Stone, the sole dissenter, held that the court should safeguard minority rights against popular opinion, particularly where conscientious belief was involved.
The Court’s decision led to rampant mob violence against Jehovah’s Witnesses across the United States, as police and public officials sometimes stood complicit. This social turmoil, coupled with shifts in the Supreme Court’s composition, catalyzed a quick reversal. By 1943, the ruling was overturned in West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, where Justice Robert H. Jackson, writing for the majority, famously stated that no government official could dictate the orthodoxy of opinion.
The reversal marked one of the swiftest in Supreme Court history, as the widespread violence and Justice Stone’s persistent advocacy for minority protections underscored the need for judicial reconsideration. This narrative is explored in detail in SCOTUSblog‘s series, “In Dissent,” penned by Anastasia Boden.