Supreme Court Declines to Hear Some 2,000 Cases

First Amendment

Comment by Nate Segal:

The Supreme Court of the United States just opened its new term (on Monday, October 5, 2009). According to the New York Times:

In ... some 2,000 ... cases that accumulated during the court's summer break, the court let stand rulings from lower courts without comment.
They refused to hear appeals concerning the Pledge of Allegiance, the Confederate flag and license plates bearing the words "Choose Life."

New York Times, Adam Liptak – Washington
"Justices Decline to Hear Some 2,000 Cases"
Tuesday, October 6, 2009, page A19

The Secretary of State of Illinois declined to offer some 60 specialty styles of plates including a style bearing the slogan "Choose Life." The state is not taking a stand on the abortion issue, so it can refuse to offer whatever styles it wishes to — including the other 60, or so.

In Florida, students must recite the Pledge of Allegiance unless they have written permission from their parents not to.

A Tennessee high school is forbidding the display of the Confederate flag "because of the disruptive potential of the flag in a school where racial tension is high and serious racially motivated incidents, such as physical altercations or threats of violence, have occurred" (case Barr v. Lafon, No. 08-1325).