Justice Jackson in the Jehovah's Witnesses' Cases

Authors

John Q. Barrett, St. John's University School of LawFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

FIU Law Review

Publication Date

2019

Volume

13

First Page

827

Abstract

(Excerpt)

I will address Justice Jackson and Jehovah’s Witnesses in four parts. First, I will begin with Robert Jackson himself, introducing the man who became a Supreme Court Justice, and who came to author Barnette and at least one other very notable opinion in a Jehovah’s Witness case. Second, I will turn to the Barnette case in its Supreme Court legal context, which turns out to be two Court terms, 1941–42 and 1942–43, of many Jehovah’s Witnesses cases. These cases produced a run of Court decisions that are a framework surrounding Barnette, and thus understanding them is important to understanding it—Barnette was one of many decisions regarding Jehovah’s Witnesses, not a decision standing alone. Third, I will turn back to discussing Justice Jackson, the author of Barnette, and how his opinion there was a piece of his judging overall in the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ cases. Finally, I will conclude by pointing to some of Robert Jackson’s life experiences that one can see, at least between the lines, in his Jehovah’s Witness case opinions.

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Available at: https://ecollections.law.fiu.edu/lawreview/vol13/iss4/13/