Is Yoder v. Wisconsin Limited to Its Facts?

Abstract

Although Yoder v. Wisconsin is over 50 years old and clearly part of the canon of free exercise law, its meaning is surprisingly contested in a case the Supreme Court only recently decided to hear, Mahmoud v. Taylor. In Mahmoud, the plaintiffs are parents who balked at their children being exposed to readings and lessons during the school day that ran counter to their religious views on sexual morality. Their main argument is that they should win because Yoder is directly on point: just as in Yoder the parents had a right to take their children out of school because that clashed with their religious beliefs, the parents in Mahmoud should receive the more "modest relief" of opting their children out from objectionable lessons. The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected this argument. Yoder is basically a one-off case, "sui generis," and Yoder's principles don't apply outside of the facts in Yoder. Both sides mistake the significance of Yoder for Mahmoud. Yoder is not limited to its facts. It is a case with a holding that applies beyond Yoder into cases where parents are compelled to send their children to school, over their religious objections, and where the state asserts a general interest in children attending public schools. But to fashion the rule of Yoder this way is to see how the case may not be as relevant as the plaintiffs in Mahmoud believe. Unlike the issue in Yoder, the issue in Mahmood is not about whether their children should go to school at all. The Mahmoud parents would not object to sending their children to private school, or to schooling them at home and being subject to state educational standards, something that was not on the table in Yoder. And the state interest in Mahmoud-directing what parts of the curriculum their children should be exposed to-is different from the interest in Yoder, which concerned compulsory education itself. So Yoder is neither as narrow as the 4th Circuit said it was, nor as broad as the Mahmoud plaintiffs want it to be. Far from settling Mahmoud v. Taylor, Yoder might end up being more of a distraction. Whatever side wins in Mahmoud, it won't win because of Yoder.

Keywords: yoder v. wisconsin, substantial burden, free exercise