Learning Activity: Jackson's Majority Opinion on West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette (1943)
Provide students with the following quotations from Justice Robert Jackson’s majority opinion in this case:
“The very purpose of the Bill of Rights was to withdraw certain subjects from the vicissitudes [changes] of political controversy, to place them beyond the reach of majorities and officials to establish them as legal principles to be applied by the courts. One’s right to life, liberty, and property, to free speech, a free press, freedom of worship and assembly, and other fundamental rights may not be submitted to vote; they depend on the outcome of no elections.”
“If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox [officially approved, ed.] 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 occur to us. We think the action of the local authorities in compelling the flag salute and pledge transcends [goes beyond, ed.] constitutional limitations on their power, and invades the sphere of intellect and spirit which is the purpose of the First Amendment to our Constitution to reserve [set apart, ed.] from all official control.”
Ask students to answer the following questions about Justice Jackson’s majority opinion in this case:
- What did Robert Jackson say about the purpose for the Bill of Rights?
- Which rights did Jackson call “fundamental rights?”
- What did Justice Jackson mean when he said that “fundamental rights may not be submitted to vote; they depend on the outcome of no elections”?
- What did Jackson mean when he said: “...no official...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”?
- Why did Robert Jackson argue that forcing Jehovah’s Witnesses to pledge allegiance to the American flag violated their First Amendment rights?