ABSTRACT
In the famous second Flag Salute Case 1 the Supreme Court held that children of Jehovah’s Witnesses, who believed that saluting the flag was a violation of the first of the Ten Commandments, could not constitutionally be compelled to participate in a daily flag salute ceremony at school, required by an act of the West Virginia Legislature. The decision was put on the broad ground that the compulsory flag salute was an invasion of the sphere of intellect and spirit—a sphere protected by the First and Fourteenth Amendments. National unity and patriotism may be fostered by persuasion and example, but there may be no coerced uniformity. Justice Felix Frankfurter, in an impassioned opinion, dissented. The legislation, he said, may be unwise, but the remedy for that should be in the legislature and not in the courts. Much legislation affecting freedom of thought and speech, he said, “should offend a free-spirited society” and is yet constitutional. The Court, he argued, has no constitutional power to give more weight or dignity, to place a higher value, on some rights guaranteed by the Bill of Rights than on others. There is nothing in the Constitution that gives the Court authority to be a more zealous guardian of some rights rather than of some others. “Our power,” he said,
