Both a district judge and a U.S. Court of Appeals sided with Gobitas, but the school board continued fighting until the cases landed before the nine justices of the Supreme Court. When they handed down their decision in Minersville School District v. Gobitis (a lower court misspelled Gobitas, and the error stuck), the final tally wasn’t even close; 8–1 against Gobitas, with only Justice Harlan Stone dissenting. Justice Felix Frankfurter wrote the majority opinion. “National unity is the basis of national security,” he argued.
