The Tennessee Sunday-Law Case

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Mar 19, 1914

The Tennessee Sunday-Law Case

THE trial of J. S. Rooker, a member of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, who was indicted by the grand jury of Humphreys County, Tennessee, for hoeing corn in his own field on Sunday, took place in the courthouse at Waverly,

worked regularly on Sundays and were never prosecuted.

3. The national and State constitutions are subordinate to the judicial decision of the State supreme court.

4. The plea for the rights of con-

bring in a verdict of guilty.

Attorney for the Defendant, Mr. Simmons

Your Honorable Court and Gentlemen of the Jury: We have a question here that involves a principle, and it is a principle upon which the government of the United States is

J. S. ROOKER AND FAMILY, OF HUSTBURG, TENN.

Attorney-General Bowman's Speech to Jury

Please, Your Honor, for Mr. Rooker and his religious belief I have the utmost respect, and I have no word of criticism to make either of Mr. Rooker or of the faith which he follows. I am charged

people of the land, then it is obligatory on the people.

You are going to follow the law of Tennessee in this case, if you know it. You took oath to follow it. What does the law say? The laws and ordinances have been uniformly upheld by this court. It

ing to observe God's laws." I don't blame him for that; but when the laws of the land say he should observe Sunday, then if he is a good citizen, notwithstanding what he believes to be divine law, he is going to obey those laws, too.