Although Wisconsin v. Yoder was the first decision by the Supreme Court to uphold the rights of religious dissenters (the Amish) to forgo compulsory education requirements, the case did not set a clear precedent of judicial tolerance for the practices of other religious minority groups. On the contrary, lower courts and the Supreme Court itself have subsequently ruled against religious minorities (most notably, Native Americans) when the practice of their religions conflicted with government interests. Some anthropologists claim that the Amish were given preferential treatment in Wisconsin v. Yoder because the nature of their religion conformed to the prevailing WASP norms and mores.
The controversy that led to Wisconsin v. Yoder began in 1968 when school officials in New Glarus, Wisconsin filed suit against Jonas Yoder, Wallace Miller, and Adin Yutzy. Yoder and Miller were members of the Old Order Amish religion. Yutzy belonged to the Conservative Amish Mennonite Church. All three men were parents of children under 16 years of age. Wisconsin law requires compulsory education for children until they reach the age of 16. In accordance with Amish custom, Yoder, Miller, and Yutzy removed their children from school after the children graduated from the eighth grade. The school district estimated that it was losing approximately $15,000 a year in state funding due to the absence of Amish children from school.
Amish began settling in the New Glarus area during the mid 1960s. They built a one-room schoolhouse for the education of their elementary school children. At first the Amish sent their teen aged children to the local high school. However, in 1968 the parents removed their children from the school. The parents based their rejection of the local high schools on "a requirement that shorts be worn in physical education classes as well as to the teaching of evolution and other ideas contrary to their religious beliefs...