Newdow
Let's talk about people who have been misled:
[Sandra Banning, mother of Michael Newdow's daughter] described herself and her daughter as practicing Christians who are active in their Elk Grove church. [...] The girl replied "that it was OK because she will still whisper 'one nation under God' and no one will know she is breaking the law," Banning said.(Bob Egelko, "Girl in pledge case not an atheist, mom says", San Francisco Chronicle, July 16; see another version of the story)
So Sandra Banning, or somebody, told her daughter that Michael Newdow is trying to make saying "one nation under God" against the law (and lock up all those theist kids or something?).
The law in the U.S. is that you can pray in public, you can pray in private, you can pray in public school, you can advocate religious belief in public school, you can wear religious symbols and slogans -- if you are a student. And this is perfectly proper, and an important part of religious freedom and free expression. What you can't do is have the public school advocate a religious belief.
If lots of kids think that Michael Newdow is trying to stop them from saying that they believe in God, then they will have good reason to be angry with him (even if they're his daughter -- maybe especially if they're his daughter). But of course that's not what Newdow is trying to do.
His complaint is with religious activity on the part of government, not religious activity on the part of students.
Maybe many children think that, if adults try to lead them in saying something, they must say it, and if adults don't lead them in saying something, they may not say it. But an earlier Pledge case -- as some people observed, before the Pledge included "under God"! -- says children don't have to say what the adults expect them to. That's Barnette. And another case says children have their own free expression rights and can say things adults don't approve of. That's Tinker. Fixed stars, schoolhouse gates.
The free expression (and free exercise) rights of young people are important to me, but I see a tendency to minimize them. The separation of church and state in public education makes especially strong sense if we think that young people have their own beliefs -- very possibly distinct from their communities' or their parents' -- and their own rights to express those beliefs.
Maybe Newdow's and Banning's daughter doesn't yet know she has those rights -- but Banning ought to know it. And she ought to tell her daughter: you can say whatever you want, and you can disagree with your father, and he's not trying to take that right away from you.
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