Appeals Court Declares Pledge of Allegiance Unconstitutional

[Derek Seidman <derektheredrebel@xxxxxxxxx>]

Now, all we have to work on is that "liberty and
justice for all" part.

Appeals Court Declares Pledge of Allegiance
Unconstitutional
By DAVID STOUT


ASHINGTON, June 26 ? A federal appeals court in
California declared today, in what will surely not be
the last word on the issue, that the Pledge of
Allegiance to the flag is unconstitutional because of
the words "under God" that Congress inserted in 1954.

A panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the
Ninth Circuit, in San Francisco, sided with Michael A.
Newdow of Sacramento, an atheist who objected because
his second-grade daughter had to listen as her
classmates in the Elk Grove school district recited
the pledge each morning.

To recite the pledge, Judge Alfred T. Goodwin wrote
for a three-judge panel, "is to swear allegiance to
the values for which the flag stands: unity,
indivisibility, liberty, justice, and ? since 1954 ?
monotheism."

That last word is crucial, Judge Goodwin reasoned,
since it means the pledge violates the Establishment
Clause of the Constitution, which mandates a
separation of church and state.

"A profession that we are a nation `under God' is
identical, for Establishment Clause purposes, to a
profession that we are a nation `under Jesus,' a
nation `under Vishnu,' a nation `under Zeus,' or a
nation `under no god,' because none of these
professions can be neutral with respect to religion,"
Judge Goodwin wrote.

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Congress inserted the "under God" phrase at the height
of the cold war, when many Americans saw themselves in
a struggle against godless Communism and
schoolchildren practiced crouching under their desks
in case of atomic attack.


Rest of the article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/26/national/26CND-PLEDGE.html


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