Jackson Center To Host Major Program On Historic Court Case Friday

Bennett Boskey, Supreme Court law clerk to Chief Justice Harlan Stone at the time of the West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette case, will appear as part of a major program at the Robert H. Jackson Center at 10:30 a.m. Friday in the Carl Cappa Auditorium of the Jackson Center.

  The public is invited free of charge to the 10:30 a.m. event, but the audience is asked to take their seats by 10 a.m. so the program can be videotaped for possible broadcast by C-SPAN. A free luncheon open to the public follows the program.

  The event is co-sponsored by the Supreme Court Historical Society. Local sponsors include: HSBC Bank USA, Lloyd and Company, Serta Mattress of Jamestown, Young Title Agency, Allegheny Financial Assets, the Jamestown Bar Association, the Jamestown Chamber of Commerce, Jamestown Community College and The Post- Journal.

  The program concentrates on the West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette case of 1943 in which Justice Robert H. Jackson wrote the court’s opinion, said to be one of his finest written opinions. The Barnette decision, rendered amid the patriotism in the United States in the middle of World War II, invalidated a West Virginia Board of Education resolution that required all school teachers and students to participate in a flag salute and recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance. The case was brought on behalf of the Barnette sisters, who were Jehovah’s Witnesses.

  The Jehovah Witness children were forbidden by their religion and families to salute the flag, given their belief the Bible told them not to bow down to graven images, as symbolized to them by the flag. Because of their refusal to salute the flag, they were expelled from school, making them illegally absent.

  The Supreme Court held 6-3 that the state’s flag salute requirement violated the children’s First Amendment rights.

  The two Barnette sisters are Gathie Edmunds and Marie Snodgrass, now adult residents of West Virginia.

  Boskey served as a law clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Harlan Stone at the time of the decision and will participate in the roundtable discussions April 28 with the two Barnettes. John Q. Barrett, Jackson scholar and Elizabeth Lenna Fellow to the Jackson Center, will moderate the discussion with the trio.

  Boskey served as partner in the firm Volpe Boskey & Lyons, located in Washington, D.C., from 1952 to 1996. He maintains a private law office in Washington. He began his career in 1939 as a clerk for Judge Learned Hand, the presiding judge of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Hand accepted Boskey after U.S. Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter recommended him. Boskey then clerked for Supreme Court Justices Stanley Reed in 1940-41 and Harlan Stone in 1941-43. That experience led to a lifelong interest and expertise in the Supreme Court, leading him to write three volumes of West’s Federal Forms on the Supreme Court as well as numerous legal articles.

  He continues other longstanding pursuits, such as leadership roles in the American Law Institute, where he served as treasurer for more than 26 years. He is active in educational initiatives, especially at Harvard Law School and Vassar College.

  Adding historical perspective prior to the program, Shawn Francis Peters, the author of Judging Jehovah’s Witnesses, an award-winning book about the subject, will speak during the program. Peters has taught at the universities of New Hampshire and Iowa and is with the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication.

  For more information about the program, call the Jackson Center at 483-6646 or visit its Web site at www.roberthjackson.org.

The Post-Journal

Thursday, April 27, 2006

Vol. 179, No. 310

Section B, Page 8