Religious opposition to The Pledge of Allegiance and flag salute appeared as early as 1918. Yet, the most famous case involving in Minersville School District v. Gobitis (1940) greatly challenged our constitutional rights to require students to salute the flag. Court's desicision rejected the claim of Jehovah's Witnesses from Pennsylvania who argued that requiring the children to salute the flag while in school was equivalent as to forcing them to worship an image that violated their rights to freedom of religion. After numerous times of reading and studying the case, I found myself in a great deal of opposition to the decision and opinions presented by Justice Frankfurter. Right from the beginning, it was inappropriate and wrong doing for the Court portrayed as balancing conflicting claims of liberty and authority. There is not a piece of law has been written in the Constitution states nor implies that school's interest in creating national unity is more important than the rights of the students to refuse to salute the flag. Instilling patriotic ideals in our youth is a noble objective. Nonetheless, it is counterproductive if, seeking to accomplish that noble objective, we ignore the fundamental principles in the Constitution.
             Although the Courts decision was in favor of the Minersville School district, the decision seemed to have had some overtones of bias towards the Jehovah's Witnesses. One must remember that America was involved in World War II; a war that took many lives of American men and change the path of our country forever. It does make one wonder whether or not Justice Frankfurter could have had some bias towards the Jehovah's Witnesses because of this and other beliefs they might have followed. Refusing to salute the flag, or to participate in activities, which many consider necessary during this time period to promote unity within America, was looked upon as suspicious. Justice Frankfurter himself m...