March 12, 2010 in Nation/World

Federal appeals court upholds ‘God’ in pledge

9th Circuit rejects atheist’s challenge

Terence Chea Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO – A federal appeals court upheld the use of the words “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance and “In God We Trust” on U.S. currency, rejecting arguments Thursday that the phrases violate the separation of church and state.

The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel rejected two legal challenges by Sacramento atheist Michael Newdow, who said the references to God are unconstitutional and infringe on his religious beliefs.

The same appeals court caused a national uproar and prompted accusations of judicial activism when it decided in Newdow’s favor in 2002, ruling that the pledge violated the First Amendment prohibition against government endorsement of religion.

President George W. Bush called the 2002 decision “ridiculous,” senators passed a resolution condemning the ruling and Newdow received death threats.

That lawsuit reached the U.S. Supreme Court in 2004, but the high court said Newdow lacked the legal standing to file the suit because he didn’t have custody of his daughter, on whose behalf he brought the case.

So Newdow filed an identical challenge on behalf of other parents who objected to the recitation of the pledge at school. In 2005, a federal judge in Sacramento decided in Newdow’s favor, prompting the appeals court to take up the case again.

Judge Carlos Bea, who was appointed by Bush in 2003, wrote for the majority in Thursday’s 2-1 ruling.

“The Pledge of Allegiance serves to unite our vast nation through the proud recitation of some of the ideals upon which our Republic was founded,” he said.

Bea noted that schools do not require students to recite the pledge, which was amended to include “under God” by a 1954 federal law. Members of Congress at the time said they wanted to set the U.S. apart from “godless communists.”

Judge Stephen Reinhardt, who was part of the three-judge panel that ruled in Newdow’s favor eight years ago, wrote a 123-page dissent to the 60-page majority opinion.

“Under no sound legal analysis adhering to binding Supreme Court precedent could this court uphold state-directed, teacher-led, daily recitation of the ‘under God’ version of the Pledge of Allegiance by children in public schools,” wrote Reinhardt, who was appointed by President Jimmy Carter in 1980.

Newdow, a doctor and attorney who founded a group called the First Atheist Church of True Science, told the Associated Press he would ask the appeals court to rehear the case. If it rejects that request, Newdow said he’ll appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

“The whole argument that ‘under God’ wasn’t placed into the pledge for religious purposes is bogus,” Newdow said. “I hope people recognize this is not against God or people who believe in God. It’s about the government not treating people equally on the basis of their lawful religious views.”

Newdow said he isn’t optimistic the Supreme Court will agree to hear the case because the justices will likely be reluctant to hear a case that could invalidate the pledge.

“They don’t want to do what’s politically unpopular,” he said. “The Supreme Court will not hear a case that upholds the Pledge of Allegiance. It’s very unlikely at least.”

Rory Little, a professor at the University of California Hastings College of the Law, agreed. He said the Supreme Court is unlikely to review the case because Thursday’s ruling is the third appellate court decision upholding the pledge.

In addition, Congress passed legislation reaffirming the pledge in 2002, following the 9th Circuit’s ruling that struck it down.

“I think this is the last word on this particular lawsuit,” Little said. “It’s an important ruling.”

In a separate 3-0 ruling Thursday, the appeals court upheld the inscription of the national motto “In God We Trust” on U.S. coins and currency, citing an earlier 9th Circuit panel that ruled the phrase is ceremonial and patriotic and “has nothing whatsover to do with the establishment of religion.”

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14 comments on this story so far. Add yours!

oldtownboy500 on March 12 at 2:44 a.m.
Thank you for the intervenetion of our God for seeing that through. Let us not fear that the Lord is all powerful. Follow Him and the rewards are great!
smarg on March 12 at 5:11 a.m.
Don’t worry. The Wiccans and the Sodomites are ascendant.
God help us all.
Orange on March 12 at 6:14 a.m.
Well thank you 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for letting me read and say the word God. I do really appreciate it. Either way, I still will say and believe in God. hehehe, and you can’t stop me. hahhahahaa
leekinny on March 12 at 6:57 a.m.
Tell Glenn Beck: I’m a Social Justice Christian
http://go.sojo.net/campaign/glennbeck_socialjustice?rk=V72OVwpajJ8pE
BigE on March 12 at 8:05 a.m.
Grandpa always weighs in, grew up saying the pledge of allegence, I do understand the words and I am proud to be an American, One nation under God………
PlanB on March 12 at 8:15 a.m.
Keep up the fight for our constitutional rights, Newdow. It’s an unconstitutional, exclusionary phrase that never should have been included in the first place. As Newdow said, its not about being against god or people who believe in god, it’s about equality under the law, something that many christians just don’t understand.
CharlesBillford on March 12 at 8:28 a.m.
If there was a God why would he need the Supreme Court speaking for it? Allah, Mohammand, Budda, Zorroastrins, Dianna, Zeus?
SpokaneMac on March 12 at 8:53 a.m.
All religion including christianity is a widely accepted form of mental Illness.
” Religion poisons everything ” Christopher Hitchens
mikeln on March 12 at 9:00 a.m.
Some “GOD” people went to Ugahnda, where they convinced the government there that homosexually was so bad that these people should be executed. Maybe the god people at the low end of the church do good work for people but their leaders are all about punishing others who do not believe in their particular brand of crazy.
SugarShane on March 12 at 9:05 a.m.
I believe the guy is right. Our country was also founded on the freedom of choosing your own religon, and the pledge seems to indoctrinate people into Christianity. (arent christians the only ones to call him God?)
Don’t get me wrong, when I was a kid I wanted to beat up the Jehovas witnesses because they pleged their allegience to Jehova and would not recite the pledge. I just really believe in the separation of church and state and feel school is no place to talk about religon.
Children are wayyy too impressionable and deserve to make their own choices, not just become what their parents believe in and tell them is right. George Carlin said it best, “If you teach your kids anything, teach them to question authority”.
leekinny on March 12 at 9:38 a.m.
Recently I have come to believe that there should be an Eighth Deadly Sin…….
.
‘Presumption’—The belief that we’re so close to God that He is on our side, that all our ways our His ways, that we deserve all earthly and spiritual blessings while others warrant punishment, that we deserve His mercy while others earn retribution, and that we deserve Heaven while others merit Hell.
The misbehavior of the religious right in this country and the shameful acts of religious extremists in other parts of the world, now and throughout history, have caused many in the strictly secular community to view all religions the same way. Many of us who struggle to have the spiritual a part of who we are share many of the same concerns. Judgments about who we are shouldn’t be limited to those, who because of human frailty to the more sinister, have fallen away from the dictates of their faith community.
We don’t all belong in one box and it’s not progressive to put people there.
The best cure for ignorance and prejudice is a little bit of knowledge. Many of todays far right conservatives love wallowing in their ignorance and wrap themselves up in prejudice as if it were a warm fuzzy blanket. Progressives strive to do better when confronted with their own misconceptions. Although many people of all stripes love that warm fuzzy blanket making it hard to come out from under it and greet the world afresh.
Why America Needs a Spiritual Left
By Michael Lerner
http://www.tikkun.org/article.php/Lerner-after-the-fall
spokanada on March 12 at 11:21 a.m.
Anybody else find it ironic that the athiest that filed the suit received death threats from Christians?
Go Jesus Go. Show your followers how to kill in your name.
leekinny on March 12 at 2:21 p.m.
It also takes a tremendous amount of faith to be an atheist. More so than any of us who have been, or, are now agnostic. It takes an incredible amount of faith to know for sure.
Oh, and the ‘we all hope bad people suffer in hell’ part is a gross misinterpretation of what it’s all about. Those who dare to call themselves Christians must find their way to accept the Mercy available to them while understanding that same level of Mercy is required of themselves.
If you don’t mind, too much, here is a prayer from a gentle saint that gives a good description of what it means to be a ‘Bleeding Heart”…
The Prayer of Saint Francis
“O Lord, make me an instrument of Thy Peace!
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is discord, harmony;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light,
and Where there is sorrow, joy.
Oh Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seekto be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.”
from a great man who understood the effects of hate very well…
“Don’t ever let anyone pull you so low as to hate them. We must use the weapon of love. We must have the compassion and understanding for those who hate us. We must realize so many people are taught to hate us that they are not totally responsible for their hate. But we stand in life at midnight; we are always on the threshold of a new dawn.”
—Martin Luther King, Jr.
“In struggling for human dignity the oppressed people of the world must not allow themselves to become bitter or indulge in hate campaigns. To retaliate with hate and bitterness would do nothing but intensify the hate in the world. Along the way of life, someone must have sense enough and morality enough to cut off the chain of hate. This can be done only by projecting the ethics of love to the center of our lives.”
—Martin Luther King, Jr.
PlanB on March 18 at 10:43 p.m.
I don’t find it ironic at all that he has received death threats from christians. Hate, killing, and genocide is ingrained in their religion. Most understand that in the modern era those traits are wrong, but there’s always the lunatic fringe out there…