West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette

The Court held that public schools cannot compel students to salute the flag or recite the Pledge of Allegiance.

Overview

Children of Jehovah's Witness families in West Virginia were expelled for refusing on religious grounds to salute the flag, a requirement the Court had upheld only three years earlier in Minersville School District v. Gobitis. In a 6-3 decision announced on Flag Day in 1943, Justice Robert Jackson overruled Gobitis, grounding the ruling in freedom of speech rather than religion alone and writing that no official can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion. Barnette established that the First Amendment protects the right not to speak and remains one of the most quoted opinions in American law.