Court Opinion

ID: 3517335
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2016-07-05 22:28:45.208739+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T14:19:16.803772
License: Public Domain

This case is controlled by the opinion this day handed down in the case of Taylor v. State, 194 Miss. 1, 11 So.2d 663.
We desire to again emphasize, as we tried to emphasize in that case, that the Mississippi statute does not attempt to coerce, control or direct, in the slightest degree, the conscience or religious beliefs of any person. So far as that statute is concerned, one may believe in and worship a Divine Being, or any ideal or thing the worshiper may think divine, under the name of Jehovah, or any other name; or, on the other hand, he is free to worship satan, a golden calf, any animal or thing, or any image of anything, real or imaginary. What the statute *Page 61 
does prohibit is the going about into the homes and among the people, and, by affirmative teaching and action, attempting to persuade the people, at this tragic time, to have disrespect for and disloyalty towards the flag and the state and the nation, and to evince an attitude of disobedience to the laws of the land, thereby undermining the war efforts of the state and national governments. The statute does not command any one to salute the flag or do anything else; it simply demands that people shall not engage in certain affirmative activities which the sovereign state, through its legislature, has determined are harmful to other people and to the public welfare and to the defensive war efforts of the state and nation.
Appellant was indicted for doing the things prohibited by the statute, and the jury found on sufficient evidence that he did them.
Affirmed.