The Supreme Court decided in Wisconsin v. Yoder that families can homeschool their children in accordance with their religious beliefs setting a precedent for an individual’s right to free exercise of religion.
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Jonas Yoder was a member of the Old Order Amish living in the state of Wisconsin. Yoder, and others, lived carefully according to their religious tradition in the community with other Amish and away from the influence of the modern world.
After the eighth-grade, Old Order Amish school children do not continue to high school where much is taught in variance of their Amish way of life. Instead, the children return to the home, where they are instilled with the virtues of goodness, wisdom, and community welfare by their family.
But these families ran into a problem as they sought to live out their religion that motivated their family since the 16th century.
The state of Wisconsin required students to attend school through at least the high school age of 16.
Yoder’s case went all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States that held that the State of Wisconsin could not compel these Amish families to send their children to high school.
According to the court,
“…only those interests of the highest order and those not otherwise served can over balance legitimate claims to the free exercise of religion.”
Wisconsin v. Yoder was among the first cases that helped articulate an important balancing test that weighed a state’s interest in governing against an individual’s right to the free exercise of religion.
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