<P> Frankfurter said that the court was overstepping its bounds in striking down the West Virginia law . He said, too, that freedom of religion did not allow individuals to break laws simply because of religious conscience . Frankfurter argued that "Otherwise each individual could set up his own censor against obedience to laws conscientiously deemed for the public good by those whose business it is to make laws ." </P> <P> Frankfurter's response to Jackson's systematic destruction of his Gobitis decision was one of anger, and Justices Roberts and Murphy tried to get him to revise his opinion, arguing that the first two lines were "much too personal". However, Frankfurter ignored the advice of his fellow justices, taking the overruling of his Gobitis decision as a personal affront and insisting on speaking his mind . </P> <P> Frankfurter began with a reference to his Jewish roots: "One who belongs to the most vilified and persecuted minority in history is not likely to be insensible to the freedoms guaranteed by our Constitution ." This was the passage Justices Roberts and Frank Murphy felt was out of place . Frankfurter, however, insisted that the passage was necessary since he claimed he was "literally flooded with letters" following the Court's decision in Gobitis that said he should be more sensitive to the protection of minorities due to his Jewish heritage . Frankfurter's dissent continued, "Were my purely personal attitudes relevant I should wholeheartedly associate myself with the generally libertarian views in the Court's opinion...But as judges we are neither Jew nor Gentile, neither Catholic nor agnostic ." </P> <P> Having responded to his critics and the Court's reversal on a personal level, he now responded on a judicial one, with the remainder of his opinion focusing on judicial restraint . "As a member of this Court, I am not justified in writing my private notions of policy into the Constitution...It can never be emphasized too much that one's own opinion about the wisdom or evil of a law should be excluded altogether when one is doing one's duty on the bench ." </P>

West virginia state board of education v. barnette summary