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Glad to see this story is getting so much attention. But you'll note that school officials' response is that the student was actually arrested for disrupting the class rather than for failing to recite the Pledge.
It's worth talking about that 1/
washingtonpost.com/education/2019…
It's worth talking about that 1/
washingtonpost.com/education/2019…
Laws that criminalize disorderly or disruptive behavior give government officials an outrageous amount of power. They also fail to account for anything that the officials may have done to provoke the situation. 2/
Need another example of this? Remember when Professor Henry Louis Gates was arrested for being too loud outside of his home? He had every reason to be angry & then the officer asked him to step outside: archive.boston.com/news/education… 3/
Unfortunately, the Supreme Court tells us that these sorts of laws about disturbing the peace are not void-for-vagueness: law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/t… 4/
But, in my mind, the Court needs to pay more attention to laws that aren't just vague on their face, but which are obvious sources of inappropriate government discretion--such as being able to punish people who are understandably angry about having their rights violated. /end
Wow-- If this many people are interested in the topic, let me recommend an essay that I wrote about these principles and the Supreme Court's failure to protect them: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cf… It's free to download and read!
