That they are educating the young for citizenship is reason for scrupulous protection of Constitutional freedoms of the individual, if we are not to strangle the free mind at its source and teach youth to discount important principles of our government as mere platitudes.
The very purpose of a Bill of Rights was to withdraw certain subjects from the vicissitudes of political controversy, to place them beyond the reach of majorities and officials and to establish them as legal principles."
One's right to life, liberty, and property, to free speech, a free press, freedom of worship and assembly, and other fundamental rights may not be submitted to vote; they depend on the outcome of no elections.
National unity as an end which officials may foster by persuasion and example is not in question. The problem is whether under our Constitution compulsion as here employed is a permissible means for its achievement.
Struggles to coerce uniformity of sentiment in support of some end thought essential to their time and country have been waged by many good as well as by evil men." Those who begin coercive elimination of dissent soon find themselves exterminating dissenters. Compulsory unification of opinion achieves only the unanimity of the graveyard."
The First Amendment to our Constitution was designed to avoid these ends by avoiding these beginnings. There is no mysticism in the American concept of the State or of the nature or origin of its authority. We set up government by consent of the governed, and the Bill of Rights denies those in power any legal opportunity to coerce that consent. Authority here is to be controlled by public opinion, not public opinion by authority.
The case is made difficult -because the flag involved is our own. Nevertheless, we apply the limitations of the Constitution with no fear that freedom to be intellectually and spiritually diverse or even contrary will disintegrate the social organization. To believe that patriotism will not flourish if patriotic ceremonies are voluntary and spontaneous instead of a compulsory routine is to make an unflattering estimate of the appeal of our institutions to free minds.
If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein. If there are any circumstances which permit an exception, they do not now occur to us."
At the height of that terrible world war, our Constitution was tested against Fascist and Nazi ideologies as surely as our armies were tested on the battlefield, and the majority of the Supreme Court strengthened our cause by ruling that America was America because it did not need to compel obedience or loyalty.
As long as voluntary patriotism and freely given love of country are dominant, we are still "the land of the free," but if that is replaced by compulsory patriotism and fear of authority, America ceases to exist.
Perhaps the Constitution and Bill of Rights should be posted in every classroom and students should discuss why the freedoms we enjoy have been defended with our blood and treasure for more than 200 years.
They should learn that when the Presidential is inaugurated, he swears an oath, saying: "I will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States." That's what our republic is based on, not veneration of the flag.
Old Glory should be honored and flown in front of the school, in the gym and at all sporting events and assemblies where the National Anthem can be played or gloriously sung!
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