The Right to Sit

Does a student have the right to remain seated while classmates stand to pledge allegiance to the flag? A New York federal judge resolved that rather special question in favor of two seventh grade girls in Queens, New York City. The pupils did not wish to join in the pledge, and had been suspended for refusing to obey their teacher's orders to leave the room. The New York school board was understandably concerned about the need to "prevent disorders that may develop as the reaction of infuriated members of the majority," observed Judge Orrin G. Judd. But the girls had not disrupted the class, and "the Constitution does not recognize fears of a disorderly reaction as ground for resisting peaceful expressions of views." The standing majority, in effect, has no right to unseat the silent minority.

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