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Page Number: 76

54 

FULTON v. PHILADELPHIA 

ALITO, J., concurring in judgment
ALITO, J., concurring in judgment 

(opinion concurring in part).  William Gobitas,71 a 10-year-
old fifth grader, and his 12-year-old sister Lillian refused to 
salute  the  flag  during  the  Pledge  of  Allegiance  because, 
along with other Jehovah’s Witnesses, they thought the sa-
lute constituted idolatry.  310 U. S., at 591–592.72  William’s 
“teacher tried to force his arm up, but William held on to 
his  pocket  and  successfully  resisted.”73   The  Gobitas  chil-
dren were expelled from school, and the family grocery was
boycotted.74 

This  Court  upheld  the  children’s  expulsion  because,  in 
ringing rhetoric quoted by Smith, “[c]onscientious scruples
have not, in the course of the long struggle for religious tol-
eration, relieved the individual from obedience to a general 
law  not  aimed  at  the  promotion  or  restriction  of  religious
beliefs.”  310 U. S., at 594; see also Smith, 494 U. S., at 879 
(quoting  this  passage).   This  declaration  was  overblown 
when issued in 1940.  (As noted, many religious exemptions
had been granted by legislative bodies, and the 1940 statute 
instituting the peacetime draft continued that tradition by
exempting conscientious objectors.  Selective Training and 
Service Act, 54 Stat. 885, 889.)  By 1990, when Smith was 
handed down, the pronouncement flew in the face of nearly 
40 years of Supreme Court precedent.

But even if all that is put aside, Smith’s recourse to Go-
bitis was surprising because the decision was overruled just
three years later when three of the Justices in the majority 
had  second  thoughts.  See  Barnette,  319  U. S.  642;  id.,  at 
643–644 (Black and Douglas, JJ., concurring); id., at 644– 
646 (Murphy, J., concurring).  Turning Gobitis’s words on 

—————— 

71 The family name was apparently misspelled in the case caption.  See 
Sutton,  Barnette,  Frankfurter,  and  Judicial  Review,  96  Marq.  L. Rev. 
133, 134 (2012). 

72 See also N. Feldman, Scorpions 179 (2010). 
73 Ibid. 
74 Id., at 180.