Pledge of Allegiance

Historical Background

In 1892, amidst a national desire to promote patriotism in the schools, the U.S. flag salute ceremony with the Pledge of Allegiance originated. In 1898, one day after the United States declared war on Spain, New York passed the first flag salute law. By 1940, 18 states had statutes with a provision for “some sort of teaching regarding the flag.” The phrase “under God” was added by a congressional amendment in 1954. The historic role of religion in the political development of the nation was the reason given for this consideration.

The Pledge of Allegiance reads as follows:

Classrooms throughout the nation responded by having students salute the flag in the morning, as a general response to the statute. Immediately, numbers of religious groups protested, with the Jehovah's Witnesses being the most prevalent, and litigation followed.

Early Litigation

In 1937, the Georgia Supreme Court, in Leoles v. Landers, declared that religious freedom had not been violated and that the salute was a patriotic exercise rather than a religious rite. In 1938, California's Supreme Court upheld the expulsion of students for refusing to salute the flag (Gabrielli v. Knickerbocker). The next year, New York's high court concluded that because the flag had nothing to do with religion, there were no religious freedoms being offended (People ex rel. Fish v. Sandstrom, 1939).

Multiple cases followed, echoing the national patriotic voice, and in 1940, the Supreme Court held that a Pennsylvania statute that required the flag salute and Pledge of Allegiance did not violate the freedom of religion guaranteed by the First Amendment [Page 643](Minersville School District v. Gobitis, 1940). The justices agreed that the Constitution required the states, as much as Congress, to respect the freedom of religion, but concluded that the state was not violating religious liberty by requiring the pledge of schoolchildren. In contrast, some state courts throughout the country concluded that the flag salute requirements violated their own constitutions.

The Jehovah's Witnesses and others next challenged the constitutionality of a revised regulation of a state board of education, which held that refusal to participate in saluting the flag could be treated as an act of insubordination with a resultant expulsion from school. The Jehovah's Witnesses argued that the pledge violated their rights to religious freedom. The U.S. Supreme Court, in West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette (1943), overruled Gobitis. The Court held that a state may require students to attend patriotic exercises based on American history and to teach unifying patriotic values, but that compulsory activities such as the flag salute were unconstitutional. In so doing, the Court reframed the case as one about free speech rather than the free exercise of religion. Students, according to this ruling could opt out and not participate in the flag salute.

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