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Saturday, April 8, 2006
Equality at heart of pledge challenge
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Donald A. Weissman grew up reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.
The Atlanta attorney is just as patriotic as you.
Or me.
But Weissman felt compelled to object when he saw a Gwinnett County magistrate judge open court proceedings with the Pledge of Allegiance. Judge Mark A. Lewis started the practice after Sept. 11. Been doing it ever since. He doesn’t mandate it, request it or require it. He simply invites people in his courtroom to stand, then turns his back to them and faces the U.S. flag.
“I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”
Some join in. Some don’t. Their choice.
Weissman is the defense attorney in a civil complaint that was to be heard by Lewis in Gwinnett Superior Court. He was concerned about the propriety of the pledge practice. He wasn’t out to attack Lewis or denigrate his patriotism. He just didn’t think Lewis was aware of the impact the practice might have on people, notably immigrants. So Weissman filed an ethics complaint with the state Judicial Qualifications Commission.
In a March 17 letter, he objected to Lewis’ beginning court with a “public declaration of national loyalty.” And he asked the judge to do one of two things: discontinue the practice or recuse himself from the civil complaints case. Lewis chose the latter.
It’s easy to dismiss Weissman at first blush. To say that his concern isn’t a concern at all. Just political correctness gone amok. After all, this is America, and Lewis presides in a U.S. court of law. Besides, if a judge can’t recite the pledge, who can?
Weissman said he’s rightly concerned about fairness. And motivated by strange behavior he’s seen judges exhibit through the years.
One judge saluted the Confederate flag. Another one called blacks by their first name and addressed whites as Mr. and Mrs. Yet another started court with a prayer.
“When a person walks into the courtroom wearing a black robe, then that person is called upon to decide issues based on the facts of the law and not where people stand on politics, religion, national origins or loyalty,” he said.
Or whether defendants stand up and recite the pledge with the judge.
“What (Lewis) is trying to do is perfectly laudable,” Weissman said. “My objection is to whether he leaves, or creates, an appearance in which people in his courtroom perceive his loyalty as partiality.”
Then there are the immigrants.
Gwinnett is the Ellis Island of the Southeast. Nationalities abound. You’d be hard-pressed to name a country unrepresented in the county fabric. Imagine, Weissman said, being a non-U.S. citizen in the courtroom of a pledge-reciting judge.
“Is he going to treat them the same as if they are native born?” he asked. “That question mark needs to be taken out of the equation. I’m not saying the judge would do anything different, but it’s the perception.”
Lewis told AJC Gwinnett News that Weissman had a right to challenge the practice. Still, he doesn’t think he should be forbidden from saying the pledge. He hopes the qualifications commission — if it finds merit in the ethics complaint — rules in his favor.
What do you think?
Is fairness jeopardized when a judge recites the Pledge of Allegiance? Would it cause immigrants consternation to see a judge expressing loyalty to the USA?
