Angry VA. legislator withdraws, then revives, mandatory pledge bill.

By Phillip Taylor
Special to http://www.freedomforum.org/
Date: 02.16.01

A Virginia General Assembly bill to make the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance a required part of every student's morning appeared doomed after its sponsor stormed out of a committee meeting calling some members "spineless pinkos." But that wasn't the end of it.

State Senator. Warren Barry, R-Fairfax County, objected to efforts to soften the mandatory suspension of students who disrupt the pledge. Barry withdrew his bill after the House Education Committee amended the bill to allow school districts to determine punishment of students who violate the law. "We got a bunch of pinkos on that committee that nibbled away on that bill to the point where it doesn't mean anything," Barry said.

The measure had passed the Senate overwhelmingly last month and had been expected to pass the House of Delegates this week before the obstacle that roused Barry's ire. But after the bill appeared dead for the session, The Washington Post reported, Barry managed late yesterday to attach it to another student-discipline bill.

That combination bill made it through the education committee and now heads for the Senate. The Post reported that Barry expects it to pass. Barry's bill would require Virginia students to say the Pledge of Allegiance each school day but allow those with religious or philosophical objections to sit or stand silently during the recitation.

Barry, an ex-Marine, crafted the bill after he visited several schools and noticed that many students were not reciting the pledge. When he asked some of them why they didn't, they said they didn't feel like it.

His original bill only made exceptions for students with religious objections. He reluctantly agreed to exempt students with philosophical ones. "To say that suspension for a kid who shows disrespect for the American flag isn't justified just doesn't sit well with me," he said.

State law already requires public schools to honor a moment of silence. Another bill before the General Assembly this term would require them to post the national motto "In God We Trust."

The American Civil Liberties Union, which unsuccessfully challenged the moment of silence measure in federal court last year, objected to Barry's original bill but has remained neutral on the current proposal. But ACLU associate director Richard Ferris said the group might challenge the law depending on how school districts interpret "philosophical objections."

The U.S. Supreme Court determined in the 1943 case of West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette that forcing students to recite the pledge violates free speech and the establishment clause.

Justice Robert Jackson wrote that the First Amendment expressly prohibits public officials from bolstering patriotism by compelling flag salutes and pledge recitations. "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," Jackson wrote. Del. William W. "Ted" Bennett, D-Halifax County, said he supported fostering patriotism with a daily pledge recitation, but he had concerned that Barry's bill pushed the matter too far.

"I'm afraid this bill starts to go over the cliff in moving from foster to force," Bennett said.

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