Pledge of Allegiance

The following is the cover letter that I gave my teacher expaining my position about the pledge.

Dear [name omitted],

I am writing this as to not interrupt class. This pertains to my refusal to stand during the pledge. I respect that people want to stand during the pledge. It is within a person’s right to stand and say the pledge. The courts have ruled that the pledge can be said in public schools. But as an American citizen, I would like the same rights. Also as ruled by the courts, a person cannot be forced to participate in the pledge.

I refuse to stand to the pledge because I object to the policies of the government, and thus I sit in protest during the pledge. I also believe that the words “under God” promote a single ideal of Christianity. I myself am a Christian but I believe that the pledge forces this on all people when said in school.

My refusal to stand during the pledge is my First Amendment rights as an American. I ask that my rights are respected. Attached are a few cuttings from different sources further explaining this issue.

Thank you for your time,


[name omitted]

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The following is the information which was attached to the cover letter.

Q. Do students have to stand during the Pledge?
A. No. Standing during the Pledge is itself a participation in the exercise and an affirmation of belief. The school may not compel a student to engage in this symbolic act.
Q. Can schools require students to leave the classroom if they refuse to take part?
A. No. Provided that students who decline to participate are quiet and do not engage in disruption, schools may not exclude them from the classroom.
Q. May students be barred from school activities for refusing to participate in the Pledge ceremony?
A. No. School authorities may not punish students for exercising their right to freedom of expression.

http://www.aclunc.org/students/pledge.html
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In a 6-to-3 decision, the Court overruled its decision in Minersville School District v. Gobitis and held that compelling public schoolchildren to salute the flag was unconstitutional. The Court found that such a salute was a form of utterance and was a means of communicating ideas. "Compulsory unification of opinion," the Court held, was doomed to failure and was antithetical to First Amendment values. Writing for the majority, Justice Jackson argued that "[i]f 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."

http://www.oyez.org/oyez/resource/case/426/
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(The following is from the opinion of the majority in the case West Virginia States Board of Education v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624 (1943))
Justice JACKSON delivered the opinion of the Court.
The very purpose of a Bill of Rights was to withdraw certain subjects from the vicissitudes of political controversy, to place them beyond the reach of majorities and officials and to establish them as legal principles to be applied by the courts. One's right to life, liberty, and property, to free speech, a free press, freedom of worship and assembly, and other fundamental rights may not be submitted to vote; they depend on the outcome of no elections…

http://www.agh-attorneys.com/4_west_virginia_v_barnette.htm
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(The following is from Civil Action No. 03-B-1544 (PAC))
…thereby depriving plaintiffs of their rights to be free from state-compelled expression as guaranteed by the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, their rights to be free from viewpoint discrimination as guaranteed by the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, and their rights to equal protection of the laws as guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.

http://www.aclu.org/FilesPDFs/pledgecomplaint.pdf
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(Following said by U.S. District Judge Lewis Babcock, who ruled in the previously stated case)
"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."

http://news4colorado.com/topstories/local_story_227113852.html