Remember when David and Shannon Croft sued the state because they didn't want their kids, then enrolled in the Carrollton-Farmers Branch school district, to recite the Texas Pledge of Allegiance? Yup. Totally forgot about that one. That was two long years ago -- back when the Crofts also sued the state separately over a law mandating that schoolchildren start their mornings with a moment of silence. U.S. District Judge Barbara M.G. Lynn upheld the moment of silence in January 2008, but that pledge lawsuit's still hanging around the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit after U.S. District Judge Ed Kinkeade upheld its constitutionality earlier this year.
Which is why Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott filed a brief with the court today yet again defending the Texas Pledge. You can read the whole 32-page brief if you like. But Abbott also released a statement, in which he said:
Just as it is perfectly constitutional for Texas schoolchildren to pledge their allegiance to "one nation, under God," it is also constitutional for students to pledge their allegiance to "one state, under God." Despite multiple U.S. Supreme Court decisions finding that patriotic acknowledgments of the Almighty are constitutional -- and a federal district court ruling rejecting their lawsuit -- the plaintiffs are continuing their attack on the Texas Pledge. The Office of the Attorney General remains committed to protecting young Texans' right to express their patriotism and recite the Texas Pledge of Allegiance each morning.
