Community Pledge: A Controversy: Case Study

The Pledge: A Controversy
During the time of World War II, when war was erupting in Europe and Asia, the United States was trying to create ways in which to unite its occupants by instilling a sense of nationalism and patriotism in the minds of fellow Americans. Two important court cases that have helped shape our society today arose as a result of this because of the injustices caused by some of the established regulations. The case of Minersville School District v. Gobitis successfully illustrates how majority rule upsets the subtle balance between individual liberty and national unity that is vital to preserving justice in a constitutional democracy, while the case of West Virginia Board of Education v. Barnette allows for the restoration
Gobitis case called into questions the degree to which a government can protrude into an individual’s life and restrict their personal freedom. Walter Gobitis-the father of the two children who were expelled because they refused to say the pledge as a cause of it went against their religious beliefs-argued that under the 1st and 14th amendment, his children’s rights had been violated: their freedom of religion and their rights to due process of liberty. There was also a catch-22 in this situation because the children were now considered ‘truant’ since they were not attending school, so law enforcement had the right to arrest their father for harboring delinquents. Martin Luther King Jr. described this form of discrimination as he “sat in Birmingham because injustice is here” (King 13). Martin Luther King Jr. evokes many elements of pathos in his letter in order to emphasize the injustices that have befallen him and other African Americans like him, which parallels to the Gobitis family and other Jehovah’s Witnesses who were being treated unfairly just because of something they believed in. The school board countered that the expulsion of students who did not comply with the rules was precisely a secular regulation, nothing to do with religion. However, it had everything to do with religion because it forced them to recite an oath that was against their religious beliefs and that went against their 1st amendment rights to freedom of religion
For instance, harsh treatment towards Jehovah’s Witnesses led to extreme patriotism and the formation of ‘super-patriots’. These people burned Jehovah’s Witness’ buildings as well as horded around them and forced them to pledge to the American flag. One can parallel this type of patriotism to John Schaar’s exploration that maybe this “lack of natural patriotism is some part of the explanation of American restlessness and rootlessness” (Schaar 97). The key word in this quote is “natural” because forcing students to say the pledge does not create natural patriotism but forced patriotism. In addition, “anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds” (King 13). Martin Luther King Jr. illustrates that patriotism, the love one has for his or her homeland, stems from ethical likeness as well because no matter what religion you are, anyone who lives on U.S. soil is now apart of the melting pot and thus considered an “American”, which is the opposite of what the ‘super-patriots’