During the late 1930s and the 1940s, Jehovah’s Witnesses attacked the Roman Catholic Church and other Christian denominations so vigorously that many states and municipalities passed laws against their inflammatory preaching.^[8]

During World War II, Witnesses experienced mob violence in America because they were perceived as being against the war effort.^[9]

Mandatory flag pledges in public schools were motivated by patriotic fervor in wartime America.^{[citation needed]} The first known mandatory flag pledges were instituted in a number of states during the Spanish–American War. During World War I, many more states instituted mandatory flag pledges with only a few dissents recorded by the American Civil Liberties Union. It was not until World War II was drawing to a close that the practice was officially challenged in the court system.

In 1935, Rutherford proscribed flag salutes, stating them to be a form of idolatry “contrary to the Word of God.”^[10] This stance drew mob violence against Witnesses^{[clarification needed]} and many children of Witnesses were expelled from public schools. The Witnesses’ apparent lack of patriotism angered local authorities, the American Legion, and others, resulting in vigilante violence during World War II. Men, women and children were injured and in some cases killed in mob attacks.^{[citation needed]}

In 1940, the case of Minersville School District v. Gobitis received publicity in a lower federal court. The US Supreme Court ruled in an 8–1 decision that a school district’s interest in creating national unity was sufficient to allow them to require that students salute the flag. After the court’s decision in the Gobitis case, a new wave of persecution of Witnesses began across the nation. Lillian Gobitas later characterized the violence as “open season on Jehovah’s Witnesses.” The American Civil Liberties Union recorded 1,488 attacks on Witnesses in over 300 communities between May and October 1940. Angry mobs assaulted Witnesses, destroyed their property, boycotted their businesses and vandalized their places of worship. Less than a week after the court decision, a Kingdom Hall in Kennebunk, Maine was burnt down.^{[citation needed]}

American Legion posts harassed Witnesses nationwide. At Klamath Falls, Oregon, members of the American Legion harassed Witnesses assembled for worship with requests to salute the flag and buy war bonds. They then attacked the Witnesses and besieged the meeting place, breaking windows, throwing in stink bombs, ammonia and burning kerosene rags. The Witnesses’ cars were disabled and many were overturned. The governor was compelled to call the state militia to disperse the mob, which reached 1,000 at its peak.^[11] In Texas, Witness missionaries were chased and beaten by vigilantes, and their literature was confiscated or burned.

First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt appealed publicly for calm, and newspaper editorials and the American legal community^[who?] condemned the Gobitas decision as a blow to liberty.^{[citation needed]}Several justices signaled their belief that the case had been “wrongly decided.”^{[citation needed]} On June 16, 1940, in an effort to dispel the mob action, the United States Attorney General, Francis Biddle, stated on a nationwide radio broadcast:

In 1943, after a drawn-out litigation process by Watch Tower Society lawyers in state courts and lower federal courts, the Supreme Court reversed its previous decision, ruling that public school officials could not force Jehovah’s Witnesses and other students to salute the flag and recite the Pledge of Allegiance.^[12]