BOSTON—The constitutionality of a New Hampshire law that requires schools to authorize a time each day for students to voluntarily recite the Pledge of Allegiance has been upheld by a federal appeals court that found the oath's reference to God doesn't violate students' rights.
A three-judge panel of the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston on Friday affirmed a ruling by a federal judge who found that students can use the phrase "under God" when reciting the pledge.
[...]
The parents, who identified themselves and their children as atheist and agnostic, said the pledge is a religious exercise because it uses the phrase "under God." They argued the recitation of the pledge at school made their children "outsiders" to their peers on the grounds of their religion.
The pledge, written in 1892 by socialist writer and Baptist minister Francis Bellamy, partly to help heal sectional hatred still lingering from the Civil War decades earlier, is: "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."
[...]
"In reciting the Pledge, students promise fidelity to our flag and our nation, not to any particular God, faith, or church," Chief Judge Sandra Lynch wrote for the court. "The New Hampshire School Patriot Act's primary effect is not the advancement of religion, but the advancement of patriotism through a pledge to the flag as a symbol of the nation."
California physician and attorney Michael Newdow, who has fought for years to strip the phrase "under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance, said he likely will appeal the ruling by asking the three-judge panel to reconsider or to refer the case to the full appeals court for a hearing.
"Once again, we have federal judges doing what is politically popular as opposed to upholding the Constitution," said Newdow, who represented the plaintiffs in the case.
He said the case isn't about "whether you believe in God or don't believe in God."
"It's whether you believe in the government respecting us all equally or the government favoring your religious views," he said.
[...]
"This appeals court reached a significant and sound decision that underscores what most Americans understand -- that the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance embraces patriotism, not religion," the group's chief counsel, Jay Sekulow, said in a statement.
This isn't a surprise. 'Under God' will never be removed from the Pledge of Allegiance, but that shouldn't stop patriotic Americans from raising a fuss from time to time to remind everyone that it's illegal. Whenever I recite the pledge, I specifically remain silent when everyone else says 'Under God.' I don't really know why. I know no one else is going to hear me. It just makes me feel better I suppose.
This is common knowledge among atheists at this point, but 'Under God' was inserted into the pledge in 1954 during the Red Scare. Eisenhower decided to push it through after hearing about the idea in a sermon. It's not about religion though. God has nothing to do with religion.
"The recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance embraces patriotism, not religion."
Wait, there's a difference? He just said atheists and agnostics aren't patriotic.
No comments:
Post a Comment