The Cult Dossier · No. 181 · Second Generation / Born In
Prince and Yoder
What the state may do for a child inside a group
1944 – present · United States, and the reasoning is borrowed well beyond it
XVIII. THE SECOND GENERATION — THE ONES WHO NEVER CHOSE
The cases concern Jehovah's Witnesses and the Amish respectively. NEITHER GROUP IS ACCUSED OF ANYTHING IN THIS ENTRY; they are simply where the law got made.
Who led it
JUSTICE WILEY RUTLEDGE wrote Prince; CHIEF JUSTICE WARREN BURGER wrote Yoder.
What it worshipped and taught
TWO SUPREME COURT DECISIONS THAT POINT IN OPPOSITE DIRECTIONS AND ARE BOTH STILL GOOD LAW. Prince establishes that a parent's religious liberty does not extend to endangering a child. Yoder establishes that a religious community's way of life can override a state's compulsory schooling requirement. EVERY ARGUMENT ABOUT A CHILD INSIDE A HIGH-CONTROL GROUP RUNS SOMEWHERE BETWEEN THESE TWO.
Who was in it
SARAH PRINCE and her nine-year-old niece BETTY SIMMONS; JONAS YODER and the Amish families of Green County, Wisconsin; every child-protection lawyer since.
How it ended, or where it stands
STILL BINDING, STILL PULLING AGAINST EACH OTHER, AND STILL THE FRAME FOR EVERY CASE IN THIS ERA.
The dead
—
Of note
THE HONEST SUMMARY IS THAT THE LAW PROTECTS A CHILD'S BODY MUCH MORE READILY THAN IT PROTECTS A CHILD'S FUTURE.
Prince is about physical danger and it is strong, clear and quotable. Yoder is about education, and it went the other way. THE PRACTICAL RESULT IS THAT A STATE WILL INTERVENE WHEN A CHILD IS BEING HURT AND WILL USUALLY NOT INTERVENE WHEN A CHILD IS SIMPLY BEING RAISED WITHOUT THE MEANS TO LEAVE — without a functional education, without documents, without contact with anyone outside. THAT SECOND CONDITION IS THE ONE EVERY SURVIVOR ACCOUNT IN THIS ERA DESCRIBES AS THE THING THAT ACTUALLY TRAPPED THEM.
IT IS WORTH BEING FAIR TO YODER. The Amish are not accused here of anything, the case involved two years of schooling rather than none, and the Court explicitly relied on the community's demonstrated capacity to prepare its young for life within it. THE DIFFICULTY IS NOT THE DECISION. IT IS THE PRECEDENT'S REACH, because the reasoning was written for a settled agrarian community and is available to any group willing to describe itself as one.
Set this beside 150 and 176. In those entries the file records that the state reaches these groups through conduct rather than belief. HERE IS THE COST OF THAT RULE: A CHILDHOOD SPENT BEING PREPARED FOR NOTHING BUT THE GROUP IS NOT CONDUCT ANYONE CAN CHARGE.
Prince is about physical danger and it is strong, clear and quotable. Yoder is about education, and it went the other way. THE PRACTICAL RESULT IS THAT A STATE WILL INTERVENE WHEN A CHILD IS BEING HURT AND WILL USUALLY NOT INTERVENE WHEN A CHILD IS SIMPLY BEING RAISED WITHOUT THE MEANS TO LEAVE — without a functional education, without documents, without contact with anyone outside. THAT SECOND CONDITION IS THE ONE EVERY SURVIVOR ACCOUNT IN THIS ERA DESCRIBES AS THE THING THAT ACTUALLY TRAPPED THEM.
IT IS WORTH BEING FAIR TO YODER. The Amish are not accused here of anything, the case involved two years of schooling rather than none, and the Court explicitly relied on the community's demonstrated capacity to prepare its young for life within it. THE DIFFICULTY IS NOT THE DECISION. IT IS THE PRECEDENT'S REACH, because the reasoning was written for a settled agrarian community and is available to any group willing to describe itself as one.
Set this beside 150 and 176. In those entries the file records that the state reaches these groups through conduct rather than belief. HERE IS THE COST OF THAT RULE: A CHILDHOOD SPENT BEING PREPARED FOR NOTHING BUT THE GROUP IS NOT CONDUCT ANYONE CAN CHARGE.
Its timeline
- 31 JANUARY 1944 PRINCE v. MASSACHUSETTS, 321 U.S. 158. Sarah Prince, a Jehovah's Witness, was convicted under child labour law for having her nine-year-old niece distribute religious literature in the street. The conviction was upheld. Justice Rutledge wrote the sentence the whole field still quotes: PARENTS MAY BE FREE TO BECOME MARTYRS THEMSELVES. BUT IT DOES NOT FOLLOW THEY ARE FREE, IN IDENTICAL CIRCUMSTANCES, TO MAKE MARTYRS OF THEIR CHILDREN BEFORE THEY HAVE REACHED THE AGE OF FULL AND LEGAL DISCRETION WHEN THEY CAN MAKE THAT CHOICE FOR THEMSELVES.
- 15 MAY 1972 WISCONSIN v. YODER, 406 U.S. 205. Amish parents refused to send their children, aged fourteen and fifteen, to school past the eighth grade. THE COURT HELD THAT COMPULSORY ATTENDANCE BEYOND THAT POINT VIOLATED THEIR FREE EXERCISE RIGHTS, accepting that the community's way of life was itself a form of education and would be endangered by more schooling.
- 1972 onward YODER BECOMES THE FOUNDATION OF THE AMERICAN RELIGIOUS-EXEMPTION ARGUMENT IN EDUCATION, and is relied on by groups with nothing in common with the Amish.
- 2008 The two lines collide at the YFZ Ranch (179): the state asserts a Prince-style interest in the children and the courts answer that it has not proved anything about any particular one of them.
- Present BOTH DECISIONS STAND. NEITHER HAS BEEN OVERRULED, AND THE TENSION BETWEEN THEM HAS NEVER BEEN RESOLVED.