hey there and welcome back to heimlich's history in this video we're going to be looking at another one of your acquired supreme court cases for the ap government curriculum namely wisconsin v yoder so if you're ready to get them brain gals milked with them let's get to it as always let's begin with the facts of the case leading up to this case three amish families in wisconsin removed their children from public schools after they had graduated from the eighth grade by amish reckoning state education was no longer necessary after the eighth grade and their children could learn a heck of a lot more by spending those years in vocational training with their family plus these families were deeply concerned about the influence of worldly ideas their children would pick up in high school which were ultimately antithetical to their religion and hey that's fine right you all do y'all well no wisconsin actually had a compulsory education law which mandated that children be educated up to 16 years old at a minimum since these kids were not yet 16 their parents had broken the law and thus were fined the exorbitant amount of five dollars each now the case went to the courts which all agreed with the state with the exception of the state supreme court but eventually in 1972 it came before the supreme court so what was the constitutional principle at stake well jonas yoder and the other parents he represented argued that wisconsin's compulsory education law violated their first amendment rights to the free exercise of their religion but wisconsin argued back that the state had a compelling interest in educating the children of their state and that interest trumped the amish community's right to free exercise if you've been watching the topic three videos for unit 3 you'll remember that the court is always trying to strike the balance between social order and individual liberty and this case is a great example of that is the state right to make laws for the education of its children yes are the amish families in this case right to want the government out of their religious practices of course so which of these is more compelling to the supreme court for that let's look at how the case was decided in a unanimous decision the court ruled in favor of yoder arguing that the state's interest in the education of children should not trump the ability of amish families to exercise their religion freely so yes this was considered a violation of the first amendment rights of the amish family and the court acknowledged that to force the amish to send their children to school for two more years would be a very real threat to their way of life and in his majority opinion chief justice warren berger said this however strong the state's interest in universal compulsory education it is by no means absolute to the exclusion or subordination of all other interests okay so why does this case matter it matters because it set the tone for future cases involving the clash between state interest and the free exercise of religion additionally after this case the homeschool movement gained a ton of traction so if you're one of those people doing school at home in your jammies well you can go hug an amish person all right i hope that helped and if you need some more help then you can click right here and review packet which is going to help you get an a in your class and a five on your exam in may i've got videos explaining all the other required supreme court cases right here and if you want me to keep making these videos then the way that you can let me know that is by subscribing heimler out