We don’t want to start a political debate, nor pit Liberals against Conservatives. In light of the Patriot Act, the revelations about the NSA domestic spy program, and a continuing decline in the freedoms we, by the constitution were guaranteed, \u00a0enjoy, it just seems to me that if we continue to stand by while we allow American schools to ban students from wearing American T-shirts displaying the American flag, claiming they represent incendiary speech — then something’s very very wrong. We all, Republicans, Democrats, Liberals, Conservatives, and all citizens from every country in the world should be concerned. It’s a slippery slope we’re on.<\/p>\n
The following was written by Jonathan Turley, who is a law professor at George Washington University, a legal scholar, and author. Please be sure to read the entire article, including the California Appellate Court decision upholding the school’s right to ban the American flag as incendiary”.<\/p>\n
After you’ve read the article, please come back to this page and participate in our poll…<\/p>\n
\nAn Inconvenient Symbol: Why The Flag Decision Flies In The Face Of Our Core\u00a0Values<\/h2>\n
On Cinco de Mayo in 2010, students who came to Live Oak High School outside San Jose were rounded up by teachers for engaging in offensive speech. The speech? They had American flags on their T-shirts, something the school viewed as insulting to Hispanics. Administrators insisted that only the Mexican flag could be shown on campus that day.<\/p>\n
Last week, the school\u2019s actions were unanimously upheld by the federal appellate court in California \u2014 a ruling that would allow flags and other patriotic symbols to be banned like profanity or hate speech.<\/p>\n
In reality, the ruling is not a sign of contempt for the flag but a sign of contempt for the rights of students. The fact that this speech concerns the flag itself (the very symbol of civil liberties) captures how far the courts have gone in abandoning core First Amendment rights for students.<\/p>\n
The case started because Live Oak High was concerned about prior disruptions and saw the American flag as \u201cincendiary\u201d and disrespectful. Accordingly, Assistant Principal Miguel Rodriguez ordered students to change their shirts or turn them inside out to hide the flag. Those who did not comply were sent home. Last Thursday, the federal appellate court in California unanimously upheld the school\u2019s actions. Judge M. Margaret McKeown of the Ninth Circuit ruled, \u201cOur role is not to second-guess the decision to have a Cinco de Mayo celebration or the precautions put in place to avoid violence.\u201d What they did is second-guess the First Amendment and the precautions put in place to protect it…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Read the entire article here<\/a><\/strong><\/span>… then come back and vote in our poll.<\/p>\n
[polldaddy poll=7849818]<\/p>\n
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We don’t want to start a political debate, nor pit Liberals against Conservatives. In light of the Patriot Act, the revelations about the NSA domestic spy program, and a continuing decline in the freedoms we, by the constitution were guaranteed, \u00a0enjoy, it just seems to me that if we continue to stand by while we allow American schools\u2026 Read More »<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,1426,1670,1656],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7131"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7131"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7131\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7132,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7131\/revisions\/7132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}