http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/06/26/national/main513506.shtml
A federal appeals court ruled Wednesday that the Pledge of Allegiance, recited daily by generations of American students, is an unconstitutional endorsement of religion and cannot be recited in schools. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a 1954 Act of Congress that added "under God" to the pledge, saying the words violated the basic constitutional tenet of separation of church and state. "The text of the official Pledge, codified in federal law, impermissibly takes a position with respect to the purely religious question of the existence and identity of God," the court's three judge panel wrote. "A profession that we are a nation 'under God' is identical ... to a profession that we are a nation 'under Jesus,' a nation 'under Vishnu,' a nation 'under Zeus,' or a nation 'under no god,"' it said. The court's ruling, the first of its kind in the country, overturned a lower court ruling that dismissed a case against the Pledge brought by the father of a schoolgirl. "This is another dispute likely to get the attention of the Supreme Court," said Legal Analyst Andrew Cohen. "It's a decision out of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, a federal appellate court which is frequently overturned by the more conservative Supreme Court." The appeals court said that when President Dwight Eisenhower signed the legislation inserting "under God" after the words "one nation," he wrote that "millions of our schoolchildren will daily proclaim in every city and town, every village and rural schoolhouse, the dedication of our nation and our people to the Almighty." The court noted that the U.S. Supreme Court has said students cannot hold religious invocations at graduations and cannot be compelled to recite the pledge. But when the pledge is recited in a classroom, a student who objects is confronted with an "unacceptable choice between participating and protesting," the appeals court said. "Although students cannot be forced to participate in recitation of the pledge, the school district is nonetheless conveying a message of state endorsement of a religious belief when it requires public school teachers to recite, and lead the recitation of, the current form of the pledge," the court said. The case was brought by Michael A. Newdow, a Sacramento atheist who objected because his second-grade daughter was required to recite the pledge at the Elk Grove school district. A federal judge dismissed his lawsuit, but the 9th Circuit ordered that the case proceed to trial. "I'm an American citizen. I don't like my rights infringed upon by my government," he said in an interview. Newdow called the pledge a "religious idea that certain people don't agree with." The government had argued that the religious content of "one nation under God" is minimal. But the appeals court said that an atheist or a holder of certain non-Judeo-Christian beliefs could see it as an attempt to "enforce a 'religious orthodoxy' of monotheism." Me: Mr. Newdow was asked if he felt he or his family may be threatened because of the rulling. He said "I hope and pray that nothing will happen." Some atheist. Kevin T. One e-mail Under God
