It's come to this

A lot of LITD posts lately have been about levels of rot on post-American campuses that are always one step beyond what one could have imagined.

And now we have this:

The UC Davis student senate has made it optional to display the American flag at its meetings, stirring up controversy on campus and conservative blogs.

Senate Bill 76 passed Thursday, said Michael Gofman, a student senator who opposed the change.

The bill amends bylaws that required the United States flag to be on display at every senate meeting of the Associated Students, University of California, Davis. The revised bylaws give senate members the option to petition for the display of the flag 24 hours before each meeting. The ASUCD senate pro tem ultimately has authority to decide whether the U.S. flag will be displayed, according to the revision.

The resolution says that since “the concept of United States of America and patriotism is different for every individual, it should not be compulsory that the flag is in view at all times during Senate meetings.”

Jose Antonio Meneses, who introduced the resolution, said the changes were meant to ensure the student government is following federal law, which he says doesn’t allow an organization to mandate displaying the flag.

“It wasn’t political in any way,” Meneses said. “But because it is the United States flag ... it’s a touchy subject to talk about. We want to make sure we are not sued.”

Gofman disagreed, saying all governing bodies within the U.S. – including a student senate – should display the flag. 

“It was a purely political issue from the start,” Gofman said.

The student government decision drew attention from internet blogs, many conservative – including Fox News Insider, the Daily Caller and The Blaze. Some stories say the flag has been “banned,” “banished” or “dropped.”

Meneses said that while he supports freedom of speech, many of the stories are inaccurate. 

“It’s not a ban on the flag,” he said.

He cited a 1943 U.S. Supreme Court decision that found West Virginia could not compel students to salute the flag or recite the Pledge of Allegiance.

“The opinion in that case is that you can’t force people to pledge your allegiance, by (the flag) being there; by extension, you are pledging your allegiance to a symbol that you don’t relate to or that you don’t equate yourself with,” he said Monday.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/education/article145130714.html#storylink=cpy

Actually, beyond the fracturing of the national fabric embodied in this move, the sloppy legal reasoning disturbs me most. This punk's use of the phrase "by extension" to equate displaying the flag with calling an assemblage to hedge allegiance to it is the kind of mentality that leads to a legitimization of the concept of a "living Constitution."

To what presently unforeseen level of decay will the post-American university sink next?