With no hint of irony or self awareness, the MAGA Fascist insurrectionists in the Arizona House voted to compel students to recite the pledge of allegiance. You first!
Lawmakers OK bill saying students MUST say the Pledge of Allegiance every day at school unless they have an excuse from a parent or they're already 18. Supreme Court precedent suggests it's not constitutional. https://t.co/agZDuyA4YQ pic.twitter.com/3bVXrmFh7b
— Capitol Media Services 📢 Telling it like it is (@azcapmedia) February 21, 2023
In West Virginia v. Barnette (1943), a case brought by the Jehovah’s Witnesses – at the height of World War II and the outcome still very much in doubt – the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that students cannot be compelled to recite the pledge of allegiance.
Justice Robert Jackson wrote the 6-3 majority opinion.
Jackson emphasizes that free expression overrides the goal of national unity. A compulsory flag pledge goes against the fundamental values of the First Amendment, which protects freedom of expression and thought from government intrusion in all but the most extreme cases. He concludes his opinion with a stirring reflection on the dangers of forced “unity” and the importance of individual liberty:
The case is made difficult not because the principles of its decision are obscure, but because the flag involved is our own. Nevertheless, we apply the limitations of the Constitution with no fear that freedom to be intellectually and spiritually diverse or even contrary will disintegrate the social organization. … [F]reedom to differ is not limited to things that do not matter much. That would be a mere shadow of freedom. The test of its substance is the right to differ as to things that touch the heart of the existing order.
If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion, or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein. If there are any circumstances which permit an exception, they do not now occur to us.
Republicans like to claim they are the party of small government and individual liberty. But this is big brother dictating what you must think and say to conform to their nationalist ideology. Despite the fact that the pledge is recited in schools and public places every day, no one can be compelled by the government to recite the pledge if it is against their personal religious beliefs.
Some 80 years after the Barnette decision, it remains the law. This bill is unconstitutional, but what do lawless MAGA Fascists care?
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Clearly unconstitutional, but the AZGOP don’t care about no steekin’ Constitution!
If you want to work for the state of Arizona or the federal government or are a member of Arizona Legislature or Congree you are REQUIRED to swear an oath to the state or federal constitution. I don’t believe there are any exceptions. Of course that is different than saying a pledge of allegiance in grade school because you’re not working for the school.
To paraphrase Colonel Kilgore: “I love the smell of forced patriotism. It smells like pyrrhic victory!”
WTF? SMFH! What a bunch of . As a kid, born and raised in Japan to parents of Japanese descent, I always felt conflicted at US military schools being required to pledge allegiance to a country about which I knew nothing other than streets were made of gold, everyone drove Cadillacs and all men wore top hats & beards like Abraham Lincoln. Republicans need to change their moniker from “GOP” to “BCP” (batcrap crazy party.) I can’t believe I used to be an R. I must have been a horrible person in my youth.