ABSTRACT
In West Virginia Board of Education v. Barnette, 319 US 624, the US Supreme Court ruled that a state cannot enforce on public school pupils the civic ritual of saluting the American flag. Barnette stands as one of the Court's most famous First Amendment cases, one continuing to be significant given the ongoing relevance to many Americans of the flag of the United States and decorum surrounding it. For all the justices, Barnette presented the fundamental issue of the use of state power against the individual, with historical precedent of "such attempts to compel adherence" revealing an "ultimate futility" and possibly constituting a pivotal step on the route toward "exterminating dissenters." The Barnette opinion foundered by subjecting lawmaking authority to the bar of "an almost numberless variety of doctrines and beliefs," because the "validity of secular laws cannot be measured by their conformity to religious doctrines."
