NC representatives get heated over Matt Gaetz’s request for Pledge of Allegiance

An argument in Congress on Wednesday left one North Carolina representative defending herself and the pride she takes in saying the Pledge of Allegiance.

It all started when Rep. Matt Gaetz, a Republican from Florida, asked that the pledge be said before each meeting of the House judiciary committee.

An amendment Gaetz offered ultimately passed unanimously, but first sparked a debate between Republicans and Democrats on the issue that lasted more than an hour.

Rep. Deborah Ross, a Democrat from Raleigh, found herself in the thick of it when she asked her colleagues to remember a Supreme Court case involving students who were members of Jehovah’s Witnesses being forced to say the pledge, which includes the line “Under God,” at their schools.

That led to even more contention between lawmakers, including her neighbor to the southwest and law school classmate, Rep. Dan Bishop, a Republican from Charlotte.

The Pledge of Allegiance, Jan. 6 and the Supreme Court

But it wasn’t Ross who set off the heated debate to begin with.

Rep. Hank Johnson, a Democrat from Georgia pointed out that many of the Republicans who served on the committee voted against certifying the election results of President Joe Biden following a riot on Jan. 6, 2021, in which members of the public raided the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to stop Congress from declaring Biden the winner of the 2020 election.

Rep. David Cicilline, a Democrat from Rhode Island, took Johnson’s point a step further and offered a secondary amendment telling Republicans to show their true patriotism by including in the original amendment that no one who participated in an insurrection could lead the committee in the pledge. Cicilline’s amendment failed with Republican members voting it down.

But before any votes occurred, Ross, who once served as state director for the American Civil Liberties Union in North Carolina, read a quote from the Supreme Court case, West Virginia V. Barnette:

“If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation it is that no official high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein. If there are any circumstances which permit an exception, they do not now occur to us.”

“So while I absolutely value our constitution — while we are having this constitutional discussion we should look at what the Supreme Court has said on this matter in other contexts,” Ross said.

The passage she read is found on the ACLU’s website, which states that it defends Americans from discrimination in practicing their own faiths.

‘Under God’

“The gentle lady from North Carolina is suggesting to the people of this great country that we should not be standing (and) pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States for it has a phrase in it, ‘Under God,’ because that is what we’re standing here and saying,” said Rep. Chip Roy, a Republican from Texas.

Ross told Roy to not put words in her mouth.

“That is completely false,” Ross said. “That is completely false. I wanted to just make the point that this committee and every member of this committee swore an oath to protect and defend the Constitution, and while I take great pride, great pride in pledging allegiance when I’m in the House and in many, many places, we should look at the full context of every issue.”

Bishop asked if Ross was trying to imply that saying the Pledge of Allegiance offends the Constitution.

“All I was doing was quoting the U.S. Supreme Court,” Ross said.

That wasn’t good enough for Bishop.

“It eludes me,” Bishop said. “It suggests that having the protocol of a pledge of allegiance, in the operations and procedures of the House of Representatives is somehow compelling an orthodoxy,” Bishop said. “Which, that would be a fundamental change in the practice we have seen here, but it would be illustrative of the moment we’re in.”

Later Wednesday morning, Ross was announced by her Democratic colleagues to serve as vice ranking member of the committee. She will also serve on the subcommittee for immigration integrity, security and enforcement and the subcommittee on courts, intellectual property and the internet.

“Judiciary Committee Democrats are ready to work across the aisle with our Republican colleagues where possible and fight against extremist legislation when necessary,” Ross said in a written statement Wednesday afternoon.

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