Is Pledging Alleging to the Flag Compulsory? (No, Here’s the Case)

Those children in the photo are American school kids in 1942. They are giving the U.S. flag the “Bellamy Salute,” named for Francis Bellamy, author of the Pledge of Allegiance.

Jehovah’s Witnesses have a religious belief in the awesome superiority of God that prohibits them from saluting any civil authority.

Their problems began in Nazi Germany, when they were arrested by the thousands for not saluting the Nazi flag or Hitler—curiously, the same type of salute as in the U.S.

Initially, the Supreme Court upheld a legal requirement for school children to salute the American flag (Minersville School District v. Gobitis). In West Virginia, lawmakers required all teachers and pupils "to participate in the salute honoring the Nation represented by the Flag; provided, however, that refusal to salute the Flag be regarded as an Act of insubordination, and shall be dealt with accordingly."

In a remarkable change— just two years after the Court ruled that a salute rule was enofceable— the Court reversed itself. 

By then, many Americans equated the “Bellamy Salute” with “Heil Hitler.” Americans also grew uncomfortable with coerced patriotism. Also, the Court had new justices.

Enter Marie and Gathie Barnett, Jehovah Witness students at Slip Hill Grade School near Charleston, West Virginia. Their father instructed them not to salute the flag or recite the pledge.

The school expelled the students.

The Supreme Court ruled that the West Virginia law was an unconstitutional abridgment of free speech in West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette. 

The Court wrote: “Compulsory unification of opinion” was doomed to failure and was antithetical to the values set forth in the First Amendment. The Court eloquently stated: “If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein.”

The Supreme Court announced its ruling on Flag Day.

Will President Trump challenge this in some direct way? It’s anyone’s guess. The better question is whether Supreme Court justices would stay with the Barnette precedent or revert to the Gobitis ruling.