Posted on 08/15/2003 4:07:04 PM PDT by DPB101
Calling it divisive and discriminatory, a federal judge blocked a Colorado law Friday that requires public school students and teachers to recite the Pledge of Allegiance.
In issuing a temporary injunction, U.S. District Judge Lewis Babcock said the law discriminates against teachers by allowing students to opt out with a note from their parents. Teachers have no such option.
The judge also said the law pits students who choose to say the pledge against those who do not, and students against teachers.
''What is instructional about that? Isn't that compelled speech? To mandate every day that one make this pledge whether you believe it or not?'' Babcock asked. ''You can't compel a citizen of the United States to recite the Pledge of Allegiance.''
The injunction will be in effect until a full hearing on the challenge. A date for that hearing was not set.
The pledge has long been part of the routine in many Colorado schools but it was not required for all 750,000 public school students from kindergarten to 12th grade until the law took effect Aug. 6.
The law was challenged less than a week later by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of nine teachers and students from four Denver-area districts.
Anne Rosenblatt, a 14-year-old freshman at Cherry Creek High School and one of those who challenged the law, said she has refused to say the pledge since January.
''I don't believe in pledging my allegiance to an inanimate object,'' she said after the ruling. Her father, Richard, said he respected her rights.
Rick Kaufman, a spokesman for Jefferson County schools, said the injunction would not stop school officials from saying the pledge daily. He said principals were advised even before the court case not to discipline anyone for refusing to say the pledge, regardless of their reasons.
''We do look forward to this litigation,'' Kaufman said. ''It will help clear up any further direction for school districts with respect to the mandate of the state law.''
State Senate President John Andrews, R-Centennial, said the ruling was an insult.
''This is a gross insult to the patriotism of most Coloradans. It's bad jurisprudence. I'm confident it will be overturned on appeal,'' he said.
ACLU attorney Allen Chen told the judge the law posed irreparable harm to the First Amendment rights of students and teachers.
''This is nothing less than ritualistic recitation of words that have much meaning to some people and no meaning to other people,'' he said.
State officials say anyone can choose not to say the pledge under certain circumstances. Assistant Deputy Attorney General Maurice Knaizer said the pledge requirement was just part of a state-mandated curriculum.
''I don't think there's any argument that the education of children is an important state objective,'' he told the judge.
Colorado is one of 33 states that require students to recite the pledge during the school day, according to the Education Commission of the States. Specific rules vary.
Last month, a federal court ruled a Pennsylvania law requiring all students to recite the pledge or sing the national anthem violated students' freedom of speech under the First Amendment.
The Supreme Court is expected to announce this fall whether it will consider another federal court ruling in San Francisco that said regular classroom recitations of the pledge are unconstitutional because of the phrase ''one nation, under God.'' That case began with a lawsuit by an atheist who sued the school district where his daughter was a second-grader.
Get real, children who have not reached the age of majority take direction and guidance from their parents who have reached the age of majority and are responsible for their children.
Even this judge didn't use that argument.
Cripes.
So, it took a ruling by a federal judge to overide a state of Colorado interpretation that requiring people to recite the pledge only exists in the ACLU's imagination? I think those people are way out in left field frequently, but this time, I agree with them. No government should have the authority to compel it's citizens how to think. It doesn't matter if the thinking is right or wrong, the goverment doesn't have the right to compel it.
There's nothing wrong with the Pledge as long as students are allowed to opt out if they want.
I hope you're joking.
If you mean the robed oliarchies ruled by secular humanists are preventing the people from being subjected to theocracies such as we see in the Muslim world, I am very much in favor of the robed ones preventing the mullahs from taking power.
Going to school is compulsory (for now). Kids need a note from home if they don't go.
Sorry you missed it. Here is the quote from the article:
Calling it divisive and discriminatory, a federal judge blocked a Colorado law Friday that requires public school students and teachers to recite the Pledge of Allegiance.
Hope this helps!
I agree with your assessment of the current President Bush. I believe in him far more than I was ever able to believe in his father - not that I didn't like the elder President Bush, because I did...just not as much as his son.
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