Science Forums 2

[CraigD]

Originally Posted by lemit

MINERSVILLE SCH. DIST. V. BOARD OF EDUC., 310 U. S. 586 (1940) -- US Supreme Court Cases from Justia & Oyez seems to allow schools to require that studaents recite the Pledge …

A point of SCOTUS record: West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624 (1943) explicitly overturned Minersville v. Gobitis (1940).

A side note: It’s interesting (at least to those who find the social and legal history of the pledge interesting) that Minersville v. Gobitis explicitly states that it applies to the pledge with the line "and to the Republic for which it stands; one Nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all" vs. “and to the republic for which it stands: one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all". Although not made US public law until 1954, the “under God” version of the pledge is commonly said to have first appeared in 1948 (source). As the only variant of that line as of the SCOTUS’s 1940 decision was an old published version which omitted the word “to”, I’m led to wonder if the “under God” addition was know to the Court 8 years before it’s commonly believed to have appeared.