A New York state court has ordered an upstate woman to remove a rock decorated with the Confederate flag from the front of her driveway or risk losing custody of her biracial daughter, the Washington Post reports.
In a unanimous 5-0 decision, the appellate justices with the New York Supreme Court said that the woman from Tompkins County had a First Amendment right to display the secessionist flag, but that did not isolate her from consequences for her choice to exhibit it, particularly when it may cause irreparable harm to her daughter.
“Given that the child is of mixed race, it would seem apparent that the presence of the flag is not in the child’s best interests, as the mother must encourage and teach the child to embrace her mixed-race identity, rather than thrust her into a world that only makes sense through the tortured lens of cognitive dissonance,” the court’s decision said.