Steve Smith's article "Barnette's Big Blunder" (78 Chi.-Kent L. Rev. 625 (2003)) directly addresses this question and argues pretty convincingly, as I remember, that the passage quoted below is misguided if it is read precisely as written. The government "decide[s] what shall be orthodox in politics" all the time, in the sense of advancing policies and attempting to convince the public that they are right. Steve shows that the connective word "or" in the passage below should be replaced by "and": what government is forbidden to do is <declare a political orthodoxy *and* force others to confess it>. Tom Berg University of St. Thomas (Minnesota)
_____ From: Robert O'Brien [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Fri 9/10/2004 8:03 PM To: Law & Religion issues for Law Academics Subject: Re: Required to stand for the Pledge? > Mark Scarberry is dead on; the school can attempt to persuade the > student to say the secular parts of the Pledge. Government can lead > opinion, or attempt to, on secular matters, but not on religious > matters. Does this not conflict with the key passage of Barnette: "No public official, high or petty, can decide what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion or force others to confess their faith therein by word or deed"? Bob O'Brien NTMail K12 - the Mail Server for Education _______________________________________________ To post, send message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe, unsubscribe, change options, or get password, see http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/religionlaw <http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/religionlaw> Please note that messages sent to this large list cannot be viewed as private. Anyone can subscribe to the list and read messages that are posted; people can read the Web archives; and list members can (rightly or wrongly) forward the messages to others.
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