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(AP Photo, with permission from The Associated Press.) This is a general view at Yankee Stadium, looking from outfield toward homeplate, as an estimated crowd of 91,652 members of Jehovah's Witnesses religious sect gather at the final session of the eight-day convention in New York City, July 26, 1953.

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Challenges to door-to-door evangelizing led to 14 First Amendment victoriesĭoor-to-door and street evangelizing and saluting the flag are by far the two areas in which the Jehovah’s Witnesses have made their most profound contribution to shaping interpretations of the free exercise and free speech clauses. New Hampshire (1942), in which the Court unanimously decided that Walter Chaplinsky’s abusive, face-to-face name-calling, aimed at a city marshal, would likely cause the “average person” to retaliate, were not essential to reasonable discourse, and thus were not protected speech.īecause Witnesses were instructed to remain courteous in their encounters with the police, however, this case seems somewhat of an aberration and not truly a defining part of the Witnesses’ struggle for their free exercise rights. They have won legal victories protecting the rights of adults in this regard, but the courts have sided with compelling state interests where children are involved.Ī Jehovah’s Witness provided the occasion for the Supreme Court’s “ fighting words” ruling in Chaplinsky v. The Witnesses also went to court to defend their right under the free exercise clause to refuse blood transfusions based on their religious beliefs. Some were arrested under the Sedition Act of 1918, “the only time in American history when almost all the leaders of a denomination were in jail” (Conkin 1997: 152). The Witnesses ran afoul of the law as early as World War I because of their pacifist stance and their refusal to take oaths. Jehovah's Witnesses arrested under Sedition Act The American Civil Liberties Union aided Witnesses in some major cases.

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They also drafted elaborate legal plans and instructed their followers on how to respond when arrested and how to behave in court. Under Rutherford, the Jehovah’s Witnesses developed their own legal department to defend members who took to the streets to proclaim their faith and who might find themselves in situations arousing conflict. Rutherford held strong and unpopular views, including hatred of capitalism and disdain of other clergy. Local groups built Kingdom Halls for their meetings and elaborate reporting systems were developed to allow the central leadership to keep abreast of and exercise control over local activities. Rutherford, a lawyer from Missouri, central control over the faithful was tightened, and the modern movement began to take shape. In 1900 the Watchtower Society headquarters moved to its present location in Brooklyn, New York.īeginning in 1916 under the movement’s second leader, Joseph F. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, with permission from The Associated Press) The iconic Watchtower sign is seen on the roof of the world headquarters of the Jehovah's Witnesses in Brooklyn. The group shares similarities with Christian denominations, although they do not recognize Christ as divine, instead placing him in an exalted position. Jehovah is a transliteration of the letters YHWH, which were used in place of the unspeakable name for God in the Old Testament.

The movement’s adherents initially called themselves Bible Students until 1931, when they took the name Jehovah’s Witnesses. The organization consisted of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, which published literature about the Bible, and “Bible study circles,” which devoted themselves to intense study of the group’s literature and to its sale and distribution door-to-door and on the streets. Jehovah's Witness group was founded in the 1870sĬharles Russell Taze founded the group in Pittsburgh in the 1870s. They do not lobby, vote, or otherwise try to influence public policy.

Apart from their many legal battles, Jehovah’s Witnesses avoid contact with the state. Perhaps no religious sect has had a greater impact relative to its size on expanding the First Amendment free exercise of religion than has the Jehovah’s Witnesses. (This 1928 photo of Rutherford appeared in the 1928 Messenger, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.) Under Rutherford, the movement formed its own legal department to defend members who were persecuted for their speech and faith. Joseph Rutherford was the second leader of the the Jehovah's Witnesses.

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