ACLU's Florida Pledge Suit Reflects Double Standard, Says Attorney
by Jim Brown and Jody Brown
January 3, 2006
(AgapePress) - - A constitutional attorney says a lawsuit filed by the ACLU over Florida's Pledge of Allegiance law is "much ado about nothing." With the help of the American Civil Liberties Union, 17-year-old Cameron Frazier has sued the Palm Beach County School Board, alleging his teacher punished him when he refused to stand for the Pledge. The suit claims the student's First and Fourteenth Amendment rights were violated, and seeks to overturn a state law that requires students to show written permission from their parents before abstaining from reciting the Pledge.
According to an ACLU press release, Frazier chose not to stand for the Pledge on December 8, continuing a practice he had engaged in since sixth grade. The 11th-grader claims that when he refused, Boynton Beach High School math teacher Cynthia Alexandre cursed at him and accused him of being unpatriotic, then ordered him to leave the classroom.
James Green, the student's attorney and legal panel chair of the Palm Beach County Chapter of the ACLU of Florida, explains that numerous court rulings have stated that public school students have the First Amendment right to remain quietly seated while others recited the Pledge. Green also disputes the teacher's accusations of Frazier being unpatriotic. "Cameron is a very patriotic student, but his is a quiet form of patriotism," he says.
Brian Fahling, an attorney with the American Family Association Center for Law & Policy, does not believe the Florida law is overreaching, even though it requires all students to stand during the Pledge -- whether they recite it or not.
"Those are reasonable accommodations," Fahling offers, "and one of the features that schools have historically been accredited in instilling in their children is one of hopefully some sense of civility and decorum in respect for others."
The ACLU recently ignored a request from Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo to defend an Illinois student who was disciplined for refusing to stand for the Mexican national anthem. Fahling says the liberal group is employing an obvious double standard.
"For the ACLU to come in on one [case] and not the other, or to hold the view that somehow they're different, would be hypocritical," he says. "Again, I don't know the particulars involved or the lawyers involved there, but it certainly does sound as though they speak out of both sides of their mouth."
The lawsuit, which names the teacher, an assistant principal, and the school board as defendants, is asking that the school policy and state law be declared unconstitutional under the First and Fourteenth Amendments. Fahling predicts the court will rule in favor of allowing students to abstain from the Pledge without parental permission.
