Cantwell V Connecticut Case Study

21. Cantwell v. Connecticut (1940): The solicitation statute or the "breach of the peace" ordinance violated the Cantwells' First Amendment free speech or free exercise rights. Although the Cantwells’ did not have the right permits for solicitation, the statute itself that made him have a permit to spread his religion was inherently unconstitutional and violated the first and fourteenth amendments. The freedoms outlined in those amendments allow citizens to exercise whatever they wish to when it comes to religion.
22. West Virginia v. Barnette (1943): The Court held that compelling students and faculty to salute the flag was unconstitutional under the first amendment. Not saluting or saluting is a form of expression and speech and forcing people to say “under god” violated their right to freedom of religion. Justice Jackson argued that "[i]f there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters

Wisconsin v. Yoder (1972): In a unanimous decision, the Court held that individual's interests in the free exercise of religion under the First Amendment outweighed the State's interests in compelling school attendance beyond the eighth grade. The first amendment rights of the Amish families were violated because their religion did not allow the children to attend school past eighth grade and therefore their freedom of religion was infringed upon.
27. Stone v. Graham (1980): The Court ruled that the Kentucky law violated the first part of the test established in Lemon v. Kurtzman, and thus violated the Establishment Clause of the Constitution. The Court found that the requirement that the Ten Commandments be posted "had no secular legislative purpose" and was "plainly religious in nature." The Court noted that the Commandments did not singularly address secular matters, but also addressed separate specific religious information as