I am writing today to announce the closure of the Michigan Messenger. After four years of operation in Michigan, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news into a single site, The American Independent at Americanindependent.com. This is part of a shift in strategy, towards new forms [...]
An abstinence-only presentation provided to numerous school districts in Calhoun and Eaton Counties in October of this year provided false and misleading information to students about HIV, experts allege.
Two county registers of deeds filed a class action lawsuit Monday on behalf of Michigan’s 83 counties alleging that the Mortgage Electronic Registration Services owes millions of dollars in property title transfer taxes.
Despite evidence of the impact of mercury on children and public health, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette last month joined with 24 other state attorneys general in filing a lawsuit to scuttle new EPA regulations that would reduce mercury emissions from power plants.
Sen. Roger Kahn (R-Saginaw) has submitted a bill, SB 637, that would require all public school districts in the state of Michigan to require each and every student to recite the Pledge of Allegiance every day. The bill says:
THE BOARD OF A SCHOOL DISTRICT OR INTERMEDIATE SCHOOL DISTRICT OR BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF A PUBLIC SCHOOL ACADEMY SHALL ENSURE THAT EACH PUPIL IN EACH PUBLIC SCHOOL IT OPERATES IS REQUIRED TO RECITE THE PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE TO THE FLAG OF THE UNITED STATES EACH SCHOOL DAY.
If the legislation passes, it is unlikely to survive a legal challenge. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled almost 70 years ago that it was unconstitutional to require a public school student to say the Pledge, in one of the most famous rulings it has ever handed down.
The case was West Virginia v Barnette and it involved a Jehovah’s Witness family that objected to swearing oaths on religious grounds. Justice Robert Jackson, who was later a prosecuting attorney at the Nuremberg Trials, delivered the opinion and included one of the most eloquent and famous passages in the history of the court:
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.
We think the action of the local authorities in compelling the flag salute and pledge transcends constitutional limitations on their power and invades the sphere of intellect and spirit which it is the purpose of the First Amendment to our Constitution to reserve from all official control.
The bill is co-sponsored by Sens. Rick Jones, Patrick Colbeck, Michael Green, Tonya Schuitmaker, Howard Walker, Goeffrey Hansen, Jack Brandenburg, and John Pappageorge. All of them are Republicans.
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