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Judge blocks mandatory Colorado pledge law
Casper Star-Tribune/AP ^ | 8/15/03 | STEVEN K. PAULSON

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.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Extended News; News/Current Events; US: Colorado
KEYWORDS: aclu; pledge; pledgeofallegiance
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To: ladylib
They shouldn't be compelled to say it under coercion. But if they want to recite it on their own that's a different story.
81 posted on 08/15/2003 6:34:50 PM PDT by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives On In My Heart Forever)
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To: goldstategop
You are absolutely right and I hope that they would want to say it and proudly.
82 posted on 08/15/2003 6:36:31 PM PDT by ladylib
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To: ladylib
"Yes, they have to go to school. No, they don't have to pledge allegiance to their country"

Oh I agree with you on that. It was the note thing that just struck me, because kids are required to provide written proof that they have their parents permission to do so many other things. It was more of a random thought than a part of the discussion.

83 posted on 08/15/2003 6:38:39 PM PDT by cake_crumb (UN Resolutions = Very Expensive, Very SCRATCHY Toilet Paper)
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To: goldstategop
The State Legislature can fix the law. But judges know a heck of a lot better than the rest of us mortals.

Judges enforce what the legislature passes. If the state legislature passes laws that encroach on our freedoms guanteed by the constitution, the federal judiciary should override those laws, if the state judiciary doesn't.

84 posted on 08/15/2003 6:41:02 PM PDT by Mushinronshasan
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To: cake_crumb
When George W's father kept mentioning "prayer in school" and "family values" because he thought he could garner votes, it totally turned me off, because I knew he was pandering to the religious right, who apparently were more cynical than he was (Bwhahahaha) because he didn't win a second term.

My problem is that I've either run out of patience or I'm not as happily naive as I once was.
85 posted on 08/15/2003 6:43:22 PM PDT by ladylib
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To: Mushinronshasan
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.

Theocracies? LOL

There is a segemnt of FR that has theocracy embalzoned on thie minds.

In my time here I have seen one theocrat and he was a libertarian Calvinist. Go figure.

86 posted on 08/15/2003 7:03:18 PM PDT by jwalsh07
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To: ladylib
No I won't "get over it". I resent the ACLU and liberal judges destroying our representative republic.

Liberals can't get their agenda enacted into law at the voting booth so they run to the courts to rule us.

It has to stop. I'm opposed to government schools to begin with but I accept the fact that the majority of voters are not. A free society needs a certain amount of give and take. The left won't hear of that. They want to rule with an iron fist. I'm sick of it.

87 posted on 08/15/2003 7:35:54 PM PDT by DPB101
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To: DPB101
I totally agree with you. It's time for this country to turn itself around and I think it wants to and may be starting in California (of all places). It takes the will of the people and the recall process or physically put the liberal judges out. I feel one way or another something has to give.
88 posted on 08/15/2003 7:43:07 PM PDT by FloridaBoy
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To: FloridaBoy
Exactly. This tears society apart--one of the goals of the ACLU and other Gramscian socialists.

People must be able to work things out in a democratic process. We saw what happened after Roe V Wade. Positions became set in stone because there was no recourse to the ballot box. The country at the time was changing on abortion. Some states were easing up, some were not. A situation which pleased no one but a situation which didn't lead the acrimony we see today on the issue.

If the people of Colorado want the pledge, let them have it. The Feds need to butt out.

89 posted on 08/15/2003 7:49:45 PM PDT by DPB101
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To: DPB101
"If the people of Colorado want the pledge, let them have it. The Feds need to butt out."

Hear hear. And the girl who started it had had the option to not participate...which according to her she started taking in January.

90 posted on 08/15/2003 7:59:58 PM PDT by cake_crumb (UN Resolutions = Very Expensive, Very SCRATCHY Toilet Paper)
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To: cake_crumb
6 teachers are also plaintiffs in the suit. Isn't that nice? They are suing those who pay their salaries.

A list of all the plaintiffs is here.

91 posted on 08/15/2003 8:32:27 PM PDT by DPB101
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To: DPB101
Lovely. Then again, no one would accuse the NEA of being anything but a socialist organization.
92 posted on 08/15/2003 8:56:20 PM PDT by cake_crumb (UN Resolutions = Very Expensive, Very SCRATCHY Toilet Paper)
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To: ianincali
Maybe if they were taught properly, they would love the country and recite the pledge of their own free will.
93 posted on 08/15/2003 8:58:52 PM PDT by Barry Goldwater (Give often and generously to the Bush campaign)
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To: BenLurkin
Wouldn't it be better to pledge allegiance to the Constitution rather than the flag. America is nothing without the Constitution. The flag is an ambiguous surrogate.
94 posted on 08/15/2003 9:01:57 PM PDT by Barry Goldwater (Give often and generously to the Bush campaign)
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To: Barry Goldwater
The constitution is just a piece of paper. Our traditions and our social mores are what determine the nature of our country. Judges are able to twist the constitution to mean whatever they want because the left has eaten away at the foundations of our civilization.
95 posted on 08/15/2003 10:21:35 PM PDT by DPB101
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To: ladylib
Are you suggesting that children move to Iran? Children are instructed to say the pledge before they even know what it means.
96 posted on 08/17/2003 4:53:54 PM PDT by funnygirl
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To: At _War_With_Liberals
'Liberals' not loyal to this country. That does seem to be the issue. The liberals probably want the USA to be a member state of the UN with the world federal government telling us in the USA how to live. In other words, "World Wide Communism" is the liberal goal. Thus they have got to get rid of nationalism. A government funded school where you are not loyal to the government. The first thing I was taught by a communist is to deny the learning of the story of Lucifer and God in heaven. Lucifer refused to serve God in Heaven. Rather to rule in Hell than to serve in Heaven. Instead I was told to read Greek Religious stories where there is no right or wrong, only petty vindictiveness. Such is the way with the Communists.
97 posted on 08/18/2003 9:40:11 AM PDT by Soliv123
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To: Soliv123
'Liberals' not loyal to this country. That does seem to be the issue.'

Its certainly my main issue.
98 posted on 08/19/2003 8:12:56 PM PDT by At _War_With_Liberals
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