Did you know that the Jehovah's Witnesses have done much to guarantee the rights and freedoms we enjoy?

Question

U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Harlan Fiske Stone wrote, "The Jehovah's Witnesses ought to have an endowment in view of the aid which they give in solving the legal problems of civil liberties."

In the United States numerous cases involving Jehovah's Witnesses are now landmark decisions of First Amendment law. In all, Jehovah's Witnesses brought 23 separate First Amendment actions before the U.S. Supreme Court between 1938 and 1946.

The most important U.S. Supreme Court legal victory won by the Witnesses was in the case West Virginia State Board of Education vs. Barnette, in which the court ruled that school children could not be forced to pledge allegiance to or salute the U.S. flag. The Barnette decision overturned an earlier case, Minersville School District vs. Gobitis (1940), in which the court had held that Witnesses could be forced against their will to pay homage to the flag.

The fighting words doctrine was established by Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire (1942). In that case, a Jehovah's Witness had reportedly told a New Hampshire town marshal who was attempting to prevent him from preaching "You are a God-damned racketeer" and "a damned fascist" and was arrested. The court upheld the arrest, thus establishing that "insulting or 'fighting words', those that by their very utterance inflict injury or tend to incite an immediate breach of the peace" are among the "well-defined and narrowly limited classes of speech [which] the prevention and punishment of...have never been thought to raise any constitutional problem."

In a more recent case, Jehovah's Witnesses refused to get government permits to solicit door-to-door in Stratton, Ohio. In 2002, the case was heard in the U.S. Supreme Court (Watchtower Bible and Tract Society v. Village of Stratton). The Court ruled in favor of the Jehovah's Witnesses, ensuring the freedom of all to go door-to-door without obtaining permits.


[edit] References

Answer 1

Yes.

Jehovah's Witnesses have brought almost 70 cases to the U.S. Supreme Court and won more than two-thirds of them (many of those they lost were later overturned).

Learn more:
http://watchtower.org/e/19960722/article_01.htm
http://watchtower.org/e/19980108/article_01.htm
http://watchtower.org/e/20030401/article_01.htm

Answer 2

The Watchtower Society has an fascinating historical past of scary courtroom circumstances within the USA, from the Forties onwards in distinctive. By then officialdom suspected the Society's big revenue of literature was once not more than trade revenue with no license. (e.g. in 1940 the Saturday Evening Post had an editorial, "Armageddon, Inc." by way of Stanley High.) Such competition got here commonly from persons who valued devout freedom. So each time JWs have been arrested for promoting books with no license, authorized motion was once instantly began to set up they have been simply preaching by way of use of the broadcast web page as a substitute of the spoken phrase. Despite countless defeats, they repeated time and again their declare of devout freedom. Gradually this created the impact that JWs - a minority organization - have been being persecuted for working towards their religion and no longer for engaging in a trade racket. Tactics to urge "martyrdom" labored a deal with. Areas, like New Jersey, have been targetted by way of mass organizations of JWs on Sundays. Complaints from locals who didn't desire their peaceable Sundays disturbed inundated the Mayor and Police Chief. When the police requested the JWs for his or her license to hawk books, they refused to relaxed them. They lower back increasingly frequently and fines have been imposed. The mass arrests and sentences have been instantly appealed. The Wt.Soc would have placed a rapid halt to this by way of attractive to the precept of freedom of the clicking. Instead, it insisted on utilizing the liberty of faith process. The courts persisted to preserve that JWs weren't being denied freedom of worship, nor molested of their Kingdom Halls, and they could be allowed to promote books in the event that they bought licenses. The JWs cried, "Intolerance!" although they have been additionally announcing publicly, "Religion is a snare and a racket!" JWs knew all alongside that that they had a correct to distribute their literature with out censorship below the liberty of the clicking portion of the Bill of Rights. They avoided utilizing it, nevertheless, given that they desired to come to be devout "martyrs". The enormous exposure received created sympathy for them. Apply the ones details to the 2002 Stratton Court case and be warned!

Answer 3

Yes I do know this. In fact some of my close personal friends were expelled from school for refusing to perform an act of worship to the flag.

Jehovah's Witnesses are law abiding citizens wherever they live except when the laws of men conflict the laws of God. (Acts 5:27-29) As such Jehovah's Witnesses continue to fight for their religious rights. I know, as LineDancer, points out that most do not want to know about this, but in case anyone does, you can read about pending cases worldwide here.

Answer 4

**Jehovah could send the angels down to direct everyone to listen to Jehovah's Witnesses if they want to survive and they would just laugh.
The scriptures point out in 'the end' it will be more like the days of Noah when they were going about their daily lives and no one payed any attention.
They don't realize that their freedoms are due to our brothers hard work and so much time spent getting the laws changed.**

Answer 5

It's an interesting point. Thank you. I agree with LineDancer, though, that those points don't seem very important in comparison to the JW stimulation of medical technology developments.

Answer 6

Yes, but no one cares to know about that. Jehovah's Witnesses have also helped doctors come up with excellent techniques for bloodless surgeries for those who don't want a blood transfusion, whether they are Winesses or not.

Answer 7

Someone else let fly this trash before. You may know that it was JW's that shut down religious broadcasting in Canada. They got their "Judge Rutherford" recordings and railed on people. The government shut them down and kept Christians from broadcasting for over 70 years.

Answer 8

Yes, yes, and you hold the truth, and no one else does, and you're the greatest thing since sliced bread.

I've never seen dialogue from a Jehovah's Witness. Prove me wrong.

Answer 9

.
Like most of the informed JW's they will not tell You facts that cast them in a bad light before the public which they wish to be friends with, unlike the bible which exposed the short comings of Gods people. The pagan Kings of old were notable in the same going to great lengths to remove info that would cast them in a bad light.

QUOTE:It is extraordinarily ironic, then, that the Jehovah's
Witnesses have recently, in Denmark, taken the position that speech,
including speech by the press, should be punished and suppressed. It
appears that when the topic is alleged clergy abuse within the
organization, its position on freedom of speech makes a 180-degree
turn. Apparently, the Jehovah's Witnesses support free speech for
themselves, but not for their critics.
.

Answer 10

I'll thank them next time they come 'round.

Thanks for posting that. Very interesting.