Wisconsin State Court (1916) in the case of State v. District Board of Joint School District Number 6, 162, Wis. 482, 156 N.W. 477 (Wis. 1916), stated:
<The fact that certain persons desire to attend graduation exercises with their children, and that they say being compelled to enter a church of a different denomination from that to which they belong is violative of their assured rights of conscience, does not make it so....
The individual must decide for himself whether his conscience tells him that he must not frequent a certain place. If it does, he should punctiliously regard its behests and stay away. But the court cannot turn casuist further than to determine whether a legal right has been invaded in any given case.
Neither can it say that a thing offends against conscience when there is no substantial reason why it should. It is not sufficient for a person to say: "This thing is contrary to what my conscience tells me to be right therefore it must be stopped."
The individual cannot foreclose inquiries into the reasonableness of his request by his bare assertion.
Some consciences are very tender and very highly developed so much so that the possessor regards as being wrong many things that the law regards as harmless.
Some refrain from playing cards for amusement, some from dancing, some from attending places of amusement, and some from all these things, because they consider it wrong to participate in or countenance them.
The law regards none of these things as being essentially wrong in itself.
At the same time it recognizes the right of anyone to stay away from them where the prompting of conscience indicate that it would be wrong to attend.> 1916WI001
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American Quotations by William J. Federer, 2024, All Rights Reserved, Permission granted to use with acknowledgement.
1916WI001. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Wisconsin State Court, 1916, in the case of State v. District Board of Joint School District Number 6, 162, Wis. 482, 156 N.W. 477 (Wis. 1916), p. 480. Elizabeth Ridenour, Public Schools-Bible Curriculum (Greensboro, N.C.: National Council On Bible Curriculum, 1996), p. 36. Robert K. Skolrood, The National Legal Foundation, letter to National Council on the Bible Curriculum in Public Schools, Sept. 13, 1994, p. 10.