Amish Education

In 1972, Jonas Yoder and Wallace Miller of the Old Order Amish and Adin Yutzy of the Conservative Amish Mennonite Church were fined $5 each for refusing to send their children, aged 14 and 15, to high school. The Wisconsin Supreme Court overturned the conviction and the U.S. Supreme Court concurred, finding that the benefits of universal education do not justify violation of the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment. The decision of the U.S. Supreme Court quoted sociology professor John A. Hostetler (1918-2001), who was born into an Amish family, wrote several books about the Amish, Hutterites, and Old Order Mennonites, and was then considered the foremost academic authorities on the Amish. (Currently, Donald Kraybill may hold that distinction).