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Interview With Appellee In Famous Flag Salute Case Is Published

By Howard M. Friedman

First Amendment Center today publised an account of its recent interview with Marie Snodgrass-- the former Marie Barnett. Marie and her sister were the appellees in the famous 1943 U.S. Supreme Court case of West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette that invalidated a West Virginia statute requiring students to stand and recite the Pledge of Allegiance. As a Jehovah's Witness, the girls' father believed that saluting the flag was tantamount to worshipping graven images. When the Barnett sisters-- then 8 and 9 years old-- refused to salute the flag, their grade school teacher was understanding, but the principal was not. He sent them home, and eventually the girls were expelled from school. In a 6-3 decision, the Supreme court decided in the girls favor. In a famous passage, Justice Robert Jackson wrote:

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 article is part of a series of Interviews with Principals in Supreme Court First Amendment Cases.

Full post as published by Religion Clause on December 28, 2009 (boomark / email).