The Minersville decision finds that national unity is an interest "inferior to none in the hierarchy of legal values (26)," because national unity is the basis for natural security and the guarantee of liberty. Frankfurter undertakes to clarify the obscure nature of the national spirit:"The flag is the symbol of our national unity, transcending all internal differences, however large, within the framework of the Constitution. This Court has had occasion to say that 'it signifies government resting on the consent of the governed; liberty regulated by law; the protection of the weak against the strong; security against the exercise of arbitrary power; and absolute safety for free institutions against foreign aggression (26).'Frankfurter in this way reduced the active issue to whether a governmental authority was justified in determining appropriate methods to evoke and recognize the glorious and liberating national sentiment (28). The answer, of course, was yes; that governments were most certainly justified, as long as restriction was accomplished in the service of liberty. Frankfurter went on:"Except where the transgression of Constitutional liberty is too plain for argument, personal freedom is best maintained -- so long as the remedial channels of the democratic process remain open and unobstructed -- when it is ingrained in a people's habits and not enforced against popular policy by the coercion of adjudicated law (28)." In the wake of the Minersville Decision, the West Virginia legislature passed a law requiring all schools to incorporate history and other civic-minded courses into their curriculum (30). The patriotism was short-lived, however, for on June 14, 1943, the Supreme Court handed down West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette (31), which effectively overturned Minersville, despite the objections of the still-sitting Frankfurter. The original suit by Walter Barnette and others sought an injunction to restrain sc...
