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2 Bill Rts. Rev. 262 (1941-1942)
Jehovah's Witnesses Mold Constitutional Law

handle is hein.journals/brr2 and id is 276 raw text is: JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES MOLD CONSTITUTIONAL LAW BY JOHN E. MULDER AND MARVIN COMISKY* SELDOM, if ever, in the past, has one individual or group been able to shape the course, over a period of time, of any phase of our vast body of con- stitutional law. But it can happen, and it has happened, here. The group is Jehovah's Witnesses. Through almost constant litigation this organization has made possible an ever-increasing list of precedents concerning the application of the Fourteenth Amendment to freedom of speech and religion. The First Amendment protects free- dom of speech and religion from undue encroachment by the Federal Govern- ment. Of course, the freedoms are not defined therein. They assume definite content only when an individual alleges in the court room that as to him they have been infringed. As that body of precedents increases predictions as to future conduct become more accurately possible. In normal, peaceful eras precedents seldom arise because chal- lenges to them do not occur. Nonethe- less, during the course of time a sub- stantial body of case law has developed concerning the First Amendment. Only in recent years, however, has the Four- teenth Amendment been judicially con- sidered as protecting the freedoms against encroachment by the states. Mi- nute analysis here becomes possible only as a sufficient variety of cases comes before the courts. Until that occurs, prediction as to permissible conduct is little more than guesswork. * Acknowledgment is gratefully made of the assistance of Norman Abrahamson, third-year student in the University of Pennsylvania Law In the World War Espionage cases the Supreme Court evolved the now- familiar clear and present danger test as the most definite available standard concerning the First Amendment. More recently, the same test has been applied to state legislation under the Fourteenth Amendment. And so, a body of prece- dent crystallizing rules regarding the limits of encroachments by the States has been developing. To this development Jehovah's Wit- nesses have contributed the most, both in quantity and in significance. Prima- rily their interest has not been merely to develop this phase of constitutional law; rather, it has been to maintain and per- petuate the existence of the organiza- tion. This cult has found it necessary to struggle against a tremendous surge of unfriendly local opinion and opposi- tion-opposition aided by local laws designed to curtail the Witnesses' functions and activities--opposition aided and abetted by zealously antagon- istic local law-enforcement authorities. Wherever and whenever they have been thus hampered, the Witnesses have alleged that the local legislation in- fringed upon their freedom of speech and religion. Favored by a strong or- ganization with adequate financial sup- port, they have been ready, able and willing to carry these issues to the high- est tribunal in the country. The deci- sions resulting therefrom now set the pattern for state courts in determining School, and now in the armed forces of the coun- try, in the preparation of this paper.

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