ABSTRACT
Consider the following case. The Amish constitute an enclosed religious community in some mid-Western and Eastern States. They live fairly separately from the rest of American society; they don’t pay taxes or take benefits from the state, they spurn many of the new technologies that other Americans take for granted; they do not watch television or drive motor cars. They do trade with outsiders to a limited extent, but they are reasonably close to constituting a self-sufficient community. In the early 1970s a group of Amish in my home state of Wisconsin challenged a law requiring that all children be subject to some formal schooling up until the age of 16. The Amish litigants claimed that such a requirement violated their right to freedom of conscience, because during the early teen years, children are especially vulnerable to secular influences, so subjecting children of that age to formal education jeopardizes their belief in God and, ultimately, their opportunity for salvation.
