Dr. John SextonRelationship  of Government and Religion11  March 2017Assignment 8Supreme Court of the United States of AmericaWisconsin v.  YoderConcurring Opinion by Gurgen Tadevosyan, undergraduate student at New York University.Respondents are members of the Amish religious group. They prevented  their children from getting a state-recognized education after they completed  the eighth grade at the ages of 14 and 15. Yoder 207. Wisconsin  statute requires parents to “cause their children to attend schools until  reaching the age of 16.” Ibid. The issue raised by the respondents is  that the state statute puts a burden on their free exercise rights, secured by  the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment.  The trial court concluded  that the reasonable governmental exercise of power overweighs the burden placed  on the Amish religion; thus, held in favor of the state. Although the Appellate  court affirmed, the Supreme Court of Wisconsin held that the state interest  does not overweighs the Amish’s freedom of exercise of religion; thus,  reversed.  The question presented is  whether a universally applicable law of the State of Wisconsin that requires  parents to send their children to governmentally approved schools up until the  age of 16 violates the Free Exercise Clause when applied to Amish parents for  refusing to obey it due to religious beliefs. The majority holds that, as  applied, the statute violates the free exercise of the Respondents’ religion,  as the burden placed on it overweighs the state’s interest in compulsory  education. I am writing to implement the Sherbert  test and to prove that, in this case, the rights of the Amish people to freely  exercise their religion should be respected. As applied, the Wisconsin Statute  of the Compulsory Education violates the Free Exercise Clause of the First  Amendment as it puts an unjustified burden on the bona fide religious  actions of the members of the Amish community.The case will be discussed under the Sherbert Test. It[N3]  analyzes the  constitutionality of the statute applications under two main questions. First -  does the challenged statute put a burden on the honest and good bona fide  religious beliefs of the Amish people. And second - is the compelling state  interest outweighed by the resultant burden. Cite.  The order of the prongs should be kept.  The application of a statute is impermissible  if the answers to both of the questions is ‘yes.’The Amish refusal of compelling [N5] with the  Wisconsin statute is a religious action and forbidding it is a burden on their  free exercise rights.     The evidence shows that the religious belief of the Amish people  that forces them to violate the statute is an honest and a good[N6]  part of their  identity. Desires to “return to the early, simple, Christian life deemphasizing  material success, rejecting the competitive spirit, and seeking to insulate  themselves from the modern world” are the reasons why this religion  was established in the 16th century. Yoder, 210. In our times, the Amish  community is guided by the literal reading of the Bible. Their conduct is  regulated by the Ordnung – “rules of the church community” and in the  adulthood they take a voluntary heavy obligation of following the rules of the Church.  Id. The religious values of these people are the determinants of their  actions; these rules dictate them to be a cooperative and an interdependent  community. Overall, one comes to two conclusions. Firstly, the Amish conduct  and lifestyle is deeply tied to their beliefs and secondly, these beliefs are  based on an honest, good and bona fide religion.   Unfortunately, the religious values of this group go in contrast  with the ones that the American educational system promotes.  Therefore, the compulsory education law  places a burden on the free exercise rights of the Amish respondents.  The latter emphasizes “intellectual and  scientific accomplishments, self-distinction, competitiveness, worldly success,  and social life with other students.” Id. at 211. On the contrary, the  Amish society promotes “learning through doing." Ibid. Their  community identity, which is inseparable from their religion, depends on values  such as goodness, intellect, community welfare and isolation from the  contemporary ‘worldly society.’ Ibid.  Due to these differences, the Amish students,  attending government-recognized schools, are subject to exposition and  education of values that are considered ‘spoilt’ for the sect  they belong to. Making the attendance compulsory results in a state-promoted  and enforced corruption of the religious values and beliefs that this community  is based on. If imposed, the statute and the state will suppress Amish  religious doctrine of lifestyle, which will prevent their younger generations  from learning their traditional ways of life that are inseparable from their  religion. The result will be the loss of the Amish religion and thus – the  identity. Overall, the Wisconsin statute could cause the destruction of an  entire sect because of the suppression of their freedom to exercise their own religion and  dissent from participating in activities that endanger its existence. In order to survive this intolerance, the Amish people were  forced to disobey the Wisconsin statute. The reason for their actions, backed  by religious demands, are ones aiming at freely exercising their religion,  which, in itself is their constitutional right. By requiring the parents to send their children to school until age  16, the state burdens the right of Amish people to freely exercise their religion.               The Wisconsin statute was enacted to satisfy a state interest of  the ‘highest order;’ however, as the Amish community serves those interests in  an alternative way, the burden placed on their freedom of exercise is not of a  ‘sufficient magnitude .’  The state’s asserted  interest in education is one of the cornerstones of the operation of our  democratic system. Thomas Jefferson has pointed out that some degree of  education is necessary to prepare citizens to effectively and intelligently  participate in our open political system. Yoder, 221. Educated people  have higher chances of making right[N13]  political decisions, and, most importantly, participating in our  system not only rationally, but also strategically – making choices that will both  reflect and maximize the individual’s impact on the outcome of the process.  Furthermore, it is also necessary for the  development of self-reliant and self-sufficient individuals. Ibid. Employment is  one of the ways of achieving such aims and education is key to employment and to  the personal success; it ensures the base on which people can build specialized  skills. These are the pillars on which the idea of labor division stands  and without them our society will not be able to provide the vital goods of the  cooperation; thus, of the public welfare. This chain events that education  causes of depicts how the lack of it can bring to the destruction of the state.However, the reality shows that even without attending a high  school, the Amish community manages to achieve the highest-order targets of the  state. By isolating themselves from the public welfare in any of its  usual forms, Amish have proven to be productive, self-sufficient and  law-abiding; even the Congress itself has authorized them to receive an  exemption from the obligation of paying social security taxes. Id. at  222. The experts also claim that in small communities they achieve  such interrelations that ensure their self-sufficiency and self-reliance. Yoder 223. This is a result of their interdependent agrarian lifestyle,  which is based on their religious values. By encouraging each member of the  society to forgo their individual benefit and work for the greater good, these  values ensure cooperation and maximal benefit of the collective action.  Thus, the state’s interest in using education  to promote good citizenship can be satisfied without the additional two years  of schooling.   In order to make this prosperous lifestyle sustainable, the passage  of these traditions from generation to generation should be ensured. The youth  of the Amish community is its future and educating them to these values is of  crucial importance for their existence. The decision of parents not to send their  children to school after the age of 14 and help them acquire these values,  leading to cooperative and bible-based life, is a is important in achieving  this aim. This itself represents an alternative way of educating new  generations the values that Jefferson was referring to as vital bases of our  system; thus, the objectives of the state in demanding a compulsory education  are being met by the Amish. Consequently, the Amish community “otherwise  serves” the required “state interests of the highest order” and proves that the  burden placed on their free exercise rights is not justified by a state  interest of sufficient magnitude.     The case in front of us today is one  that arose under the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment. As applied,  the Wisconsin Statute prohibits the Amish to prevent their children from attending  high schools; however, the members of this religious group claim that it  suppresses their freedom to exercise their religion. After analyzing the issue  under the Sherbert test, four essential answers were determined. (1) The  beliefs that the Amish people hold are religious; (2) their actions that are  challenged are strictly and tightly interconnected with their religion; (3) the  interest of the state that the Wisconsin statute aims to satisfy are of the  highest order and (4) the Amish community serves these interests in an  alternative way. Overall, the answer to the test is that the burden placed on  the free exercise of these people is not overweighed by the state interest.  Based on this, a conclusion can be drawn. The scale of justice leans towards  the Free Exercise and the Amish people should be granted it. As applied, the  Wisconsin statute cannot prohibit them from refusing to send their children to  any schools. The holding of the Appellate Court was affirmed and I agree.