On June 3, 1935, at a convention in Washington, D.C., when J. F. Rutherford was asked to comment on flag saluting in the schools, he emphasized the matter of faithfulness to God. A few months later, when eight-year-old Carleton B. Nichols, Jr., of Lynn, Massachusetts, declined to salute the American flag and join in singing a patriotic song, it was reported in newspapers across the country.

In the United States, the propriety of compelling anyone to salute a flag was submitted to the courts. On June 14, 1943, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed its own former decision and, in the case of West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, ruled that compulsory flag saluting was inconsistent with the guarantee of freedom set out in the nation’s own constitution.b