{"id":417317,"date":"2010-03-11T15:01:56","date_gmt":"2010-03-11T20:01:56","guid":{"rendered":"tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c630a53ef01310f8ea4f0970c"},"modified":"2010-03-11T17:49:14","modified_gmt":"2010-03-11T22:49:14","slug":"divided-appeals-court-rules-pledge-of-allegiance-doesnt-violate-constitution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/417317","title":{"rendered":"Divided appeals court rules Pledge of Allegiance doesn’t violate Constitution"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/img><\/a><\/div>\n

A divided federal appeals court Thursday reversed itself, ruling that the Pledge of Allegiance doesn\u2019t violate the constitutional prohibition against state-mandated religious exercise even though it contains the phrase \u201cone nation under God.\u201d <\/p>\n

The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling in 2002, which deemed that requiring students to recite the pledge violated their rights to be free of religious indoctrination by the government, was one of the most controversial to come out of the court that is second only to the U.S. Supreme Court in its power to determine law for nine Western states and two Pacific territories. <\/p>\n

The appeals court\u2019s earlier decision had been reviewed by the Supreme Court in 2004, but the justices dodged the constitutional question on procedural grounds, throwing out the lawsuit brought by a Sacramento atheist and leaving intact the wording of the patriotic declaration.<\/p>\n

\nAlso decided Thursday was a challenge brought by the same plaintiff, Michael Newdow, to the phrase \u201cIn God We Trust\u201d printed on the national money. The same three-judge panel ruled that an earlier case had found the phrase to be a national motto and that its placement on U.S. coins and currency wasn\u2019t required by any government statute.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The Establishment Clause of the Constitution\u2019s 1st Amendment prohibits the enactment of a law or official policy that establishes a religion or religious faith.
\nThe 9th Circuit\u2019s earlier ruling that the pledge unconstitutionally included \u201cunder God\u201d stirred nationwide controversy and exposed Newdow, a physician and lawyer, to virulent scorn for attacking the religious references.<\/p>\n

\n In Thursday\u2019s ruling, written by Judge Carlos T. Bea, an appointee of President George W. Bush, the judges ruled 2-1 that Newdow and others who joined his lawsuit didn\u2019t have standing to challenge the 1954 amendment to the pledge adding the words \u201cunder God\u201d because no federal statute requires them to recite it.<\/p>\n

\n Senior Circuit Judge Dorothy W. Nelson joined Bea in the ruling, but Judge Stephen Reinhardt dissented, writing that \u201cthe state-directed, teacher-led daily recitation in public schools of the amended \u2018under God\u2019 version of the Pledge of Allegiance… violates the Establishment Clause of the Constitution.\u201d <\/p>\n

Nelson and Reinhardt were both appointed to the court by President Carter.<\/p>\n

— Carol J. Williams <\/p>\n

Photo: L.A. Times file<\/em><\/p>\n

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A divided federal appeals court Thursday reversed itself, ruling that the Pledge of Allegiance doesn\u2019t violate the constitutional prohibition against state-mandated religious exercise even though it contains the phrase \u201cone nation under God.\u201d The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling in 2002, which deemed that requiring students to recite the pledge violated their rights […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5470,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-417317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5470"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=417317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417317\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=417317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=417317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=417317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}