<P> Congressional sessions open with the recital of the Pledge, as do many government meetings at local levels, and meetings held by many private organizations . All states except Hawaii, Iowa, Vermont and Wyoming require a regularly - scheduled recitation of the pledge in the public schools, although the Supreme Court has ruled in West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette that students cannot be compelled to recite the Pledge, nor can they be punished for not doing so . In a number of states, state flag pledges of allegiance are required to be recited after this . </P> <P> The United States Flag Code says: </P> <P> The Pledge of Allegiance to the 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 ."--should be rendered by standing at attention facing the flag with the right hand over the heart . When not in uniform men should remove any non-religious headdress with their right hand and hold it at the left shoulder, the hand being over the heart . Persons in uniform should remain silent, face the flag, and render the military salute . Members of the Armed Forces not in uniform and veterans may render the military salute in the manner provided for persons in uniform . </P> <P> The Pledge of Allegiance, as it exists in its current form, was composed in August 1892 by Francis Bellamy (1855--1931), who was a Baptist minister, a Christian socialist, and the cousin of socialist utopian novelist Edward Bellamy (1850--1898). There did exist a previous version created by Captain George T. Balch, a veteran of the Civil War, who later became auditor of the New York Board of Education . Balch's pledge, which existed contemporaneously with the Bellamy version until the 1923 National Flag Conference, read: </P>

Pledge of allegiance i pledge allegiance to the flag
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