Wisconsin V. Yoder
406 U.S. 205 (1972)
by
Leigh Arnold

At the request of the State of Wisconsin, the United States Supreme Court chose to review the decision of the Wisconsin Supreme Court, which declared that Wisconsin’s compulsory school attendance law was in violation of the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution made applicable to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment. Jonas Yoder and Wallace Miller were members of the Old Order Amish religion and Adin Yutzy was a member of the Conservative Amish Mennonite Church. According to Wisconsin’s compulsory school attendance law, children had to attend public or private school until the age of 16. The Amish parents had children aged 14 and 15 who have not attended school since they graduated from the eighth grade.  After a school district administrator complained that the children were not attending, the Amish were charged tried and convicted for not following the compulsory school attendance law.

The Amish argue that by sending their children to high school they would be violating their religion. If they were to allow their children to attend high school they would endanger their own salvation and possibly that of their children. Expert scholars on education and religion testified in support of the Amish argument. The State of Wisconsin did agree that these beliefs were sincere, but it felt that the State interest in producing educated citizens was more important than the religious interests of the Amish. The trial court and the Wisconsin Circuit Court sided with the state, but the Wisconsin Supreme Court overturned their decisions and sided with Yoder. The United States Supreme Court affirmed that decision.

The final decision of the United States Supreme Court to affirm the decision of the Wisconsin Supreme Court was based on the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution, which is made applicable to the states under the Fourteenth Amendment.  The Supreme Court used the evidence and statements to reason that the Amish religious faith and way of life are “inseparable and interdependent” and are rooted in religious belief. According to the experts the Amish have lived the same way for over 200 years despite the progress in modern society around them. Also, their way of life comes from a literal interpretation of their Bible. This evidence proved that the respondents’ argument did indeed fall under the Free Exercise Clause. The Court found that the although the State had an interest to educate citizens for the future, public schools would not prepare the Amish children for their lives since they are not a part of the modern society for which the public schools prepare children. In the end, the Supreme Court that the respondents had a valid argument that their rights had been violated by Wisconsin’s compulsory school attendance law.