Wisconsin v. Yoder


Wisconsin v. Yoder,

case decided in 1972 by the U.S. Supreme Court, which held that Amish children could be exempted from compulsory school-attendance beyond the 8th grade; the Amish (see under MennonitesMennonites
, descendants of the Dutch and Swiss evangelical Anabaptists of the 16th cent. Beliefs and Membership

While each congregation is at liberty to decide independently on its form of worship and other matters, Mennonites generally agree on certain
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) community's interest in maintaining a simple way of life, which it saw threatened by higher education, outweighed the state's interest in schooling through the 10th grade. The Supreme Court had not previously exempted religious groups from such laws, and it stressed that the 300-year Amish tradition was crucial to its decision.