Former education commissioner Cheri Pierson Yecke has written an interesting article about the recent Supreme Court decision about the Pledge.She recounts the history of the separation clause and argues that the phrase "Congress shall make no law" is simply a bar against establishment of a religion, not a wall between church and state. The latter is a misreading of the intentions of the First Amendment from Everson v. Board of Education onward. Of course the ever-divisive M thinks Yecke misreads Jefferson. I suspect M needs instead to read about the Establishment Clause and the tests used to decide them. Eugene Volokh thinks the case law is very muddled, which I believe agrees with Yecke.

UPDATE: Critical Mass reports another school religious liberty case (a school suspends a student wearing a shirt with a reference to Romans 1:27 during a schoolwide day in support of GLBT/LSMFT issues. A student is told by a vice principal, �When I come to school, I leave my faith in the car, and you should leave your faith in the car when it might offend others.� In the Newdow case, the faith wasn't only in the car, it wasn't even on school grounds! But in the case of the shirt, the school looks like it will defended as a case of hate speech, according to Erin O'Connor.

UPDATE 2: Stephen makes some connections.