Jehovah's Witnesses and civil liberties in the United States

In the United States and several other countries, the legal struggles of the Jehovah's Witnesses have yielded some of the most important judicial decisions regarding freedom of religion, press and speech. The resulting litigation has helped to define civil liberties case law in the United States and in most Western societies.

Former Supreme Court Justice Harlan Stone jokingly suggested "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." "Like it or not," observed American author and editor Irving Dilliard, "Jehovah's Witnesses have done more to help preserve our freedoms than any other religious group."

"The cases that the Witnesses were involved in formed the bedrock of 1st Amendment protections for all citizens," said Paul Polidoro, a lawyer who argued the Watchtower Society's case before the Supreme Court in February 2002. "These cases were a good vehicle for the courts to address the protections that were to be accorded free speech, the free press and free exercise of religion. In addition, the cases marked the emergence of individual rights as an issue within the U.S. court system."

Before the Jehovah's Witnesses brought several dozen cases before the Supreme Court of the United States during the 1930s and 1940s, the Court had handled few cases contesting laws that restricted freedom of speech and freedom of religion. Until then, the First Amendment had only been applied to acts of Congress and more broadly to acts of the federal government.

Since the 1940s, the Jehovah's Witnesses have often invoked the Free Exercise Clause and Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution to protect their religious beliefs and practices, such as proselytism, refusing to salute the flag or say the Pledge of Allegiance, and conscientious objection to military service.

Of the 72 cases involving the Jehovah's Witnesses that have been brought before the U.S. Supreme Court, the Court has ruled in favor of them 47 times. Significant cases have struck down laws making flag salutes compulsory, imposing limits of preaching in public (proselytizing), and instituting conscription—upholding a right to conscientious objection to military service.

Although the Jehovah's Witnesses did not win every case, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Jehovah's Witnesses in several landmark decisions of First Amendment law. These helped pave the way for the modern civil rights movement. Even the cases that the Jehovah's Witnesses lost helped the U.S. to more clearly define the limits of First Amendment rights.

The cases brought before the Court by the Jehovah's Witnesses allowed the Court to consider a range of issues: mandatory flag salute, sedition, free speech, literature distribution and draft law. These cases proved to be pivotal moments in the formation of constitutional law. Jehovah's Witnesses' court victories have strengthened civil liberties including the protection of religious conduct from federal and state interference, the right to abstain from patriotic rituals and military service and the right to engage in public discourse.

Animosity towards Jehovah's Witnesses

Because of their non-orthodox beliefs and practices, the Jehovah's Witnesses have faced persecution, violence and government strictures on the exercise of civil liberties such as freedom of religion, freedom of speech and freedom of the press. Archibald Cox wrote, "The principal victims of religious persecution in the United States in the twentieth century were Jehovah's Witnesses."

Strong resentment and anger were sometimes directed at the Jehovah's Witnesses (then called Bible Students) in the 1910s and 1920s. This was largely due to the Watch Tower Society's outspoken manner; it was not uncommon for members to carry placards outside churches and in the streets proclaiming the imminent destruction of church members, along with both church and government institutions if they did not flee from "false religion". Typical examples of the Watchtower's attitude are found in the Watch Tower Society's book publication The Finished Mystery (SS-7), 1917 edition: "Also, in the year 1918, when God destroys the churches wholesale and the church members by millions, it shall be that any that escape shall come to the works of Pastor Russell to learn the meaning of the downfall of 'Christianity.'" "The people who are the strength of Christendom shall be cut off in the brief but terribly eventful period beginning in 1918 A.D. A third part are 'burned with fire in the midst of the city.' Fire symbolizes destruction. . . .After 1918 the people supporting churchianity will cease to be its supporters, be destroyed as adherents, by the spiritual pestilence of errors abroad, and by the famine of the Word of God among them." (Pages 398, 399) The Bible Students believed religion was a "racket and a snare" and refused to be identified as a 'religion' for some time.

Animosity toward the Jehovah's Witnesses resulted, in large part, from the militant methods they employed in promulgating their beliefs. The sect began its aggressive campaign of door-to-door proselytizing in the late 1920s. Convinced that any concessions to the convenience of the public were an affront to Jehovah, the Witnesses refused to observe the usual constraints of time, place, or propriety that were imposed by local authorities.

World War I

The Finished Mystery, published in 1917, was controversial in its criticism of Catholic and Protestant clergy and Christian involvement in war.Citing this book, the United States federal government indicted Rutherford and the new board of directors for violating the Espionage Act on May 7, 1918. They were found guilty and sentenced to 20 years imprisonment. However, in March 1919, the judgment against them was reversed and they were released from prison and the charges were later dropped.Patriotic fervor during World War I fueled persecution of the Bible Students both in America and in Europe.

Using constitutional law to establish civil liberties

Arrests of Witnesses began in 1928 soon after Rutherford commanded all members to go forth on Sundays. This intrusion on the Sabbath particularly infuriated practicing Christians who were the target of hateful rhetoric from the Witnesses. Complaints began to pour into local police stations across the country. To address these complaints, many communities instituted new ordinances aimed at halting the Witnesses' activities.

In response to these new ordinances, Judge Rutherford began training Jehovah's Witnesses to fight in their local courts anyone and everyone who opposed the work of the Jehovah's Witnesses. Religious services at Kingdom Halls included "mock trials", with Elders playing the roles of Prosecutors and defense attorneys. Jehovah's Witnesses were trained what to say and how to behave when being arrested, while in jail, and at trial (which they assumed they would lose), so as to make their case the best possible for the appeals process which was to follow. Appellate cases were what the WatchTower Society was hoping for, and it was at the appellate level that the WatchTower Society would jump in and help with the case.

In the early 1930s, Witnesses were regularly charged with violations of licensing ordinances and disturbing the peace. The number of Witnesses arrested for violations of such laws increased nearly

fourfold, from 268 in 1933 to 1,149 in 1936. By 1935, the number of cases across the United States had grown so large that Rutherford decided to form a separate Legal Department within the WatchTower Society, selecting as its head Olin R. Moyle, a Jehovah's Witness attorney from Wisconsin. In 1938, Moyle won the Lovell v. City of Griffin case before the Supreme Court of the United States. However, in 1939, Moyle, who had been a teetotalling Prohibitionist before he was a Jehovah's Witness, got into a personal spat with Judge Rutherford over Rutherford's heavy drinking and cursing. Moyle submitted his resignation, along with a letter denouncing what he considered to be Rutherford's unchristian personal habits. Judge Rutherford was furious, and had the WatchTower Society's Board of Directors formally fire Moyle. In late 1939, Rutherford selected Hayden C. Covington to replace Moyle as head of the WatchTower Society's Legal Department. Hayden Covington was a young attorney from San Antonio, Texas, who had only recently converted to the Jehovah's Witnesses. Covington's personal habits more closely mirrored those of Judge Rutherford than did Moyle's.

With the support of Rutherford, Covington devised what the Witnesses call "The Legal Plan". Covington's plan to bring Jehovah's Witness issues before the Supreme Court was unique in that it was the first attempt to apply a broadly conceived plan of what has been termed "vigilant" or "disciplined" litigation to First Amendment issues.

The objective of the plan was to get the attention of the U.S. Supreme Court justices by challenging the U.S. legal system through appeals and trials. Covington picked which communities were to be targeted, favoring areas that were mainly Catholic. Watchtower staff that were sent to these areas carried a letter that notified local police and law enforcement of Witnesses' activities. The Witnesses were prepared to be arrested and were coached in how to conduct themselves in that eventuality. Covington planned for the cases to be tried in the courts and then challenged through appeals all the way to the Supreme Court if necessary.

Covington instructed staff members in the field not to apply for permits to preach as being required to do so was considered insulting to God. He asserted that, under the First Amendment, preaching was a right, not a privilege.

Over a period of 15 years, Covington and his staff of Watchtower lawyers legally substantiated the Witnesses' right to distribute literature door-to-door, on public streets and on streets owned by private corporations and the federal government; the right to carry out these activities without first securing a permit or paying a tax; the right to use sound-amplifying equipment to disseminate their beliefs; and the right to be protected from arrest under unconstitutional ordinances. By implementing an extensive, detailed legal plan to overturn ordinances that interfered with their evangelical mission, the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society broadened protection under the First Amendment for their members and for all Americans. In the process, Hayden Covington came to be hailed as one of the greatest civil liberties attorneys in American history.

See also

• United States Supreme Court cases involving Jehovah's Witnesses