Phil Donahue (2010) on Jehovah's Witnesses, Gobitis (1940) & Barnette (1943)

Excerpts from an April 30, 2010, interview with famed television personality Phil Donahue prior to interviewing (with Greg Peterson) Lillian Gobitas Klose in Atlanta. As a child in1940, Miss Gobitas, a Jehovah's Witness who refused to participate for religious reasons in a public school compulsory salute to the American flag, was a losing party in the U.S. Supreme Court case, Minersville Independent School District v. Gobitis* (1940). That decision was overturned in West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette* (1943), in which Justice Robert H. Jackson wrote the Court's opinion. For further information, see http://www.roberthjackson.org *In striking similarities to the Barnette case, both the Barnett and Gobitas names were misspelled in the Court's record.