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Today in Supreme Court History and an Update

On June 14, 1943, the Supreme Court decided the case of West Virginia Board of Education v. Barnette, holding that it was unconstitutional to compel children to salute the American flag in public schools.

From the majority opinion, written by Justice Jackson:

The case is made difficult not because the principles of its decision are obscure, but because the flag involved is our own. Nevertheless, we apply the limitations of the Constitution with no fear that freedom to be intellectually and spiritually diverse or even contrary will disintegrate the social organization. To believe that patriotism will not flourish if patriotic ceremonies are voluntary and spontaneous, instead of a compulsory routine, is to make an unflattering estimate of the appeal of our institutions to free minds. We can have intellectual individualism and the rich cultural diversities that we owe to exceptional minds only at the price of occasional eccentricity and abnormal attitudes. When they are so harmless to others or to the State as those we deal with here, the price is not too great. But freedom to differ is not limited to things that do not matter much. That would be a mere shadow of freedom. The test of its substance is the right to differ as to things that touch the heart of the existing order.

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. If there are any circumstances which permit an exception, they do not now occur to us.

Full opinion at Justia

More on the case:

Oyez


And an update from last week:

Forever 21 threatened to sue blogger Rachel Kane unless she took down her satirical blog by June 10. Although Kane originally said she would be taking it down, she has decided to continue blogging, arguing that her criticism of Forever 21 is fair use, and that her blog does not lead to confusion about whether it is affiliated with the fashion retailer.

New York Magazine

Time NewsFeed