July 23, 2008

ATLANTA (AP) -- A federal appeals court has upheld a Florida law
requiring public school students to recite the Pledge of Allegiance
unless they have a letter from a parent excusing them.

However, a three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals in Atlanta agreed with a federal judge's decision that it
is unconstitutional to require students who have been excused to
stand during the daily recitation of the pledge.

U.S. District Judge Kenneth Ryskamp struck down Florida's
compulsory pledge law on June 1, 2006. Ryskamp ruled the law and a
similar Palm Beach County School Board policy violated the First
and Fourth amendments in a lawsuit that the American Civil
Liberties Union filed on behalf of a student who had been punished
for refusing to stand for the pledge.

Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press.