[saFeather]

I guess 'stare decisis' ('a thing decided'), has no weight at all when it comes to traditional practices.

How ironic, considering that the judge in question relied precisely on 'stare decisis' to make his ruling, relying on the precedent set by the 2002 court on this very matter.

Personally, I think this is a good thing. The government has no business forcing children to recite such a patently nationalistic oath anyway, and to compound it by coercing acknowlegement of a religious entity just makes it worse.

[bahblahbah]

Oh the horrors of nationalism and religion.

[E Rocc]

Personally, I think this is a good thing. The government has no business forcing children to recite such a patently nationalistic oath anyway, and to compound it by coercing acknowlegement of a religious entity just makes it worse.

Actually they can't force children to recite the Pledge. That was established by the Supreme Court in 1943. But "voluntary" organized prayer is also banned.

-Eric

[george wythe]

Personally, I think this is a good thing. The government has no business forcing children to recite such a patently nationalistic oath anyway,

There is no forcing of anyone, children or adult.

Jehovah's Witness children refused to pledge allegiance to the flag during WWII, and they won their case in the US Supreme Court.

Children are encouraged by the teacher to say the pledge, not forced.

[cake_crumb]

"The government has no business forcing children to recite such a patently nationalistic oath anyway, and to compound it by coercing acknowlegement of a religious entity just makes it worse"

Children were forced to recite the Pledge in school as our way of assimilating the huge quantities of refugees from Germany and the Soviet Union. The practice of FORCING children to recite a pledge of patriotism to the flag of the United States of America, where they reside and who's schools are educating them, was STOPPED back in the 1970s because Jehovah's witnesses considered it idol worship.

Since then, the recitation of a Pledge of patriotism and the mention of some nameless, generic deity (I have a Jewish background and KNOW the term "God" is generic) has been VOLUNTARY.

[Dianna]

Personally, I think this is a good thing. The government has no business forcing children to recite such a patently nationalistic oath anyway, and to compound it by coercing acknowlegement of a religious entity just makes it worse.

It is already settled law that schools cannot force a child to say the Pledge. This ruling demands that we can not say it in school, even voluntarily.