Wisconsin v. Yoder

Wisconsin v. Yoder, case decided in 1972 by the U.S. Supreme Court, which held that Amish children could be exempted from compulsory school-attendance beyond the 8th grade; the Amish (see under Mennonites) community's interest in maintaining a simple way of life, which it saw threatened by higher education, outweighed the state's interest in schooling through the 10th grade. The Supreme Court had not previously exempted religious groups from such laws, and it stressed that the 300-year Amish tradition was crucial to its decision.

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Wisconsin v. Yoder

Wisconsin v. Yoder, 406 U.S. 205 (1972), is the case in which the United States Supreme Court found that Amish children could not be placed under compulsory education past 8th grade, as it violated their parents' fundamental right to freedom of religion.

Background of the case

Three Amish students from three different families stopped attending New Glarus High School in the New Glarus, Wisconsin school district at the end of the eighth grade, all due to their religious beliefs. The three families were represented by Jonas Yoder (one of the fathers involved in the case) when the case went to trial. They were convicted in the Green County Court, and that ruling was upheld in the appeals court. Each defendant was fined the sum of 5 dollars. Thereafter the Wisconsin Supreme Court found in Yoder's favor. At this point Wisconsin appealed that ruling in the U. S. Supreme Court.

The Amish did not believe in going to court to settle disputes but instead follow the biblical command to "turn the other cheek." Thus, the Amish are at a disadvantage when it comes to defending themselves in courts or before legislative committees. However, a Lutheran minister took an interest in Amish legal difficulties from a religious freedom perspective and founded The National Committee For Amish Religious Freedom (partly as a result of this case) and then provided them with legal counsel.

The Court's decision

The U. S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously in favor of Yoder in a 7 to 0 decision, although Justice William O. Douglas filed a partial dissent. The Court found that,

"the evidence showed that the Amish provide continuing informal vocational education to their children designed to prepare them for life in the rural Amish community. The evidence also showed that respondents sincerely believed that high school attendance was contrary to the Amish religion and way of life and that they would endanger their own salvation and that of their children by complying with the law."

And,

"...sustained respondents' claim that application of the compulsory school-attendance law to them violated their rights under the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment, made applicable to the States by the Fourteenth Amendment."

The dissenting opinion

Justice William O. Douglas wrote

"I agree with the Court that the religious scruples of the Amish are opposed to the education of their children beyond the grade schools, yet I disagree with the Court's conclusion that the matter is within the dispensation of parents alone. The Court's analysis assumes that the only interests at stake in the case are those of the Amish parents on the one hand, and those of the State on the other. The difficulty with this approach is that, despite the Court's claim, the parents are seeking to vindicate not only their own free exercise claims, but also those of their high-school-age children....
On this important and vital matter of education, I think the children should be entitled to be heard. While the parents, absent dissent, normally speak for the entire family, the education of the child is a matter on which the child will often have decided views. He may want to be a pianist or an astronaut or an oceanographer. To do so he will have to break from the Amish tradition.
It is the future of the students, not the future of the parents, that is imperiled by today's decision. If a parent keeps his child out of school beyond the grade school, then the child will be forever barred from entry into the new and amazing world of diversity that we have today. The child may decide that that is the preferred course, or he may rebel. It is the student's judgment, not his parents', that is essential if we are to give full meaning to what we have said about the Bill of Rights and of the right of students to be masters of their own destiny. If he is harnessed to the Amish way of life by those in authority over him and if his education is truncated, his entire life may be stunted and deformed. The child, therefore, should be given an opportunity to be heard before the State gives the exemption which we honor today."

The Court's Decision Legacy

"Since Wisconsin v. Yoder, all states must grant the Old Order Amish the right to establish their own schools (should they choose) or to withdraw from public institutions after completing eighth grade. In some communities Amish parents have continued to send their children to public elementary schools even after Wisconsin v. Yoder. In most places tensions eased considerably after the Supreme Court ruling, although certain difficulties remained for those Amish living in Nebraska."

Notes and references

External links

Wisconsin v. Yoder ET AL.. The Summary of the Court's opinions. Retrieved on 2006-06-10..
The Principle of Nonresistance - written in 1927 by John Horsch, a Mennonite church leader.
Hershberger, Guy F., Ernst Crous and John R. Burkholder "Nonresistance." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1989. Retrieved on 2007-01-02..
Hershberger, Guy F. and Timothy Stoltzfus Jost "Lawsuits." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1989.. In depth write-up of the Anabaptist position on legal procedures harmonized with the principles of love, nonresistance, and reconciliation. Retrieved on 2006-12-29..
Reverend William C. Lindholm U.S. Supreme Court Case: Is There Religious Freedom in America — for the Amish?. A discussion of Amish rights and freedoms in relation to Wisconsin v. Yoder. Retrieved on 2006-06-10..
National Committee For Amish Religious Freedom. homepage of a non-Amish group whose mission statement is to "defend and preserve the religious freedom of the Old Order Amish religion in the United States". Retrieved on 2006-06-10..
Review Essay: Shawn Francis Peters, The Yoder Case: Religious Freedom, Education, and Parental Rights. A review by Michelle D. Deardorff, from Jackson State University, of Shawn Francis Peter's book on the case. Retrieved on 2006-06-10..
Wisconsin v. Yoder, 406 U.S. 205 (1972), Supreme Court of the United States. In depth write-up of the Supreme Court Case. Retrieved on 2006-06-10..