In 1935, two Jehovah's Witnesses, schoolchildren Lillian and William Gobitis, were expelled from a Pennsylvania public school after they refused to participate in the Pledge of Allegiance and salute the flag. Barnette, the Court decided that mandatory ceremonial displays of respect for the flag were constitutional because of their critical role in preserving national unity.

In a decision later reversed by West Virginia Board of Education v. Although ceremonial respect for the flag was an important symbol of national unity, the children could not be mandated to partake in it. Their peaceful refusal was neither harmful nor disruptive to others, nor did it infringe upon anyone's rights. The Court ruled that the school's policy violated the children's First Amendment rights to religious liberty and freedom of speech. The children, who were Jehovah's Witnesses, had refused to comply with the compulsory school exercises because of their religious belief that these exercises were a form of idol worship.

Children in a West Virginia public school were threatened with punishment for refusing to salute the flag during the daily recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance. Barnette, the Court established that the government could not constitutionally mandate any ceremonial demonstrations of respect for the American flag, striking down its previous decision in Minersville School District v. In West Virginia State Board of Education v. Schempp, the law must act with a solely secular purpose in mind. The Supreme Court agreed and reversed the Georgia court's decision on the grounds that it had violated the First Amendment by incorporating religious interpretation into its decision. The national church claimed that the Georgia government had no constitutional power to determine if a church had departed from its tenets. The two local churches successfully sued the Church for trespass on the claim that it no longer represented their religious values. In response, the national church took over the Savannah properties that the local churches held the titles for. Two Presbyterian churches in Savannah, Georgia had doctrinal disagreement with the national Presbyterian Church and withdrew from its membership. Hull Church explicitly established the precedent that civil courts had no authority to decide church doctrine, even when that doctrine is relevant to property disputes between religious groups.

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