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Court balks at Pledge's 'under God' phrase

SAN FRANCISCO, June 26 (UPI) -- A federal appeals court Wednesday ruled the Pledge of Allegiance was an unconstitutional endorsement of religion with the words, "under God" inserted after "one nation."

The three-judge panel in San Francisco ruled that the phrase, which was inserted in the Pledge by Congress in 1954, amounted to "a profession of a religious belief, namely, a belief in monotheism."

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In Canada, where President Bush is attending the Group of Eight summit, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said "The view of the White House is that this was a wrong decision."

"The Supreme Court itself begins each of its sessions with the phrase 'God save the United States and this honorable court,"' Fleischer said.

"The Declaration of Independence refers to God or to the Creator four different times. Congress begins each session of the Congress each day with a prayer, and of course our currency says, 'In God We Trust.

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"The Department Justice is now evaluating how to seek redress," Fleischer added.

The court wrote in its opinion that "to recite the Pledge is not to describe the United States; instead, it is to swear allegiance to the values for which the flag stands: unity, indivisibility, liberty, justice, and -- since 1954 -- monotheism."

"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 Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling, which immediately became the No. 1 topic of discussion on television and radio talk shows across the country, came in a lawsuit filed by Michael Newdow, a Sacramento County atheist who objected to his second-grade daughter being exposed daily to what he saw, according to the lawsuit, as "her state-employed teacher in her state-run school leading her classmates in a ritual proclaiming that there is a God, and that ours is 'one nation under God."

Gov. Gray Davis, D-Calif., said he was disappointed at the ruling and felt that voluntary recitation of the pledge "should be a fundamental right."

"The Pledge of Allegiance is one of our most profound human expressions of American patriotism," Davis said in a statement. "Its words are a powerful reminder of who we are and what we stand for as Americans. Teaching the Pledge and the principles for which it stands is critical to fulfilling the civic mission of our schools, especially after Sept. 11."

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Kathy Smith, a candidate for state Superintendent of Public Instruction, issued a statement calling the ruling a "sickening attack upon patriotism, citizenship and our democracy."

The American Center for Law and Justice also found fault with the ruling, saying in a statement: "This is just another attempt to remove any mention of God from the public arena. We will work aggressively to make sure this ruling gets overturned."

In Washington, lawmakers, and special interest groups were quick to criticize the court's decision.

"When the president says 'God bless America' should he be banned," asked Tom Delay, R-Texas. "it is sad that at a time when our country is coming together this court is driving a wedge between us with their absurd ruling."

William Donohue, president of the Catholic League, said Wednesday's ruling shows that one of the "most foolish statement in the annals of civil-libertarian fanaticism has been rendered by a federal appeals court in California."

While the majority opinion, written by Judge Alfred T. Goodwin, contended that the revised Pledge implied that students who did not believe in God were considered "outsiders," Judge Ferdinand Fernandez's partial dissent called the entire controversy a tempest in a teapot and chided the notion that its morning recitation by school kids amounted to an attempt to establish a virtual state religion.

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"The danger that phrase presents to our First Amendment freedoms is picayune at most," Fernandez wrote. "Judges, including Supreme Court Justices, have recognized the lack of danger in that and similar expressions for decades, those expressions have not caused any real harm of that sort over the years since 1791, and are not likely to do so in the future."

Fernandez said that he was of the opinion that the First Amendment guaranteed freedom of religion not to establish a single church, or to protect a single theology, but to protect all religions and beliefs.

"Such phrases as 'In God We Trust,' or 'under God' have no tendency to establish a religion in this country or to suppress anyone's exercise, or non-exercise, of religion, except in the fevered eye of persons who most fervently would like to drive all tincture of religion out of the public life of our polity," he said.

The majority opinion, however, took a more black-and-white view of the controversy, and that Newdow had the right as a parent to object to the situation in his daughter's school.

The panel concluded that "under God" was no different than stating that the United States was "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."

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They also found that past U.S. Supreme Court decisions protected the right of those who refused to recite the Pledge and, in its most recent ruling, declared that pre-game prayers delivered at Texas high school football games had "the improper effect of coercing those present to participate in an act of religious worship."

The majority also said that the defendants in the case, including the state of California and the Sacramento City Unified School District, erred in arguing that the entire Pledge should be looked at in deciding the issue rather than focusing on the single phrase about God that was added to the Pledge in 1954.

The original Pledge of Allegiance was written in 1892 by Francis Bellamy, who was both a Baptists minister and the chairman of a committee of state school superintendents established to come up with a program to mark the quadricentennial celebration for Columbus Day in 1892.

According to John Baer's 1992 book, "The Pledge of Allegiance, A Centennial History, 1892-1992," the Pledge was written as an accompaniment to a schoolyard flag-raising ceremony.

The original pledge read: "I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

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Baer said the phrase "flag of the United States of America," was added over Bellamy's objections by the 1923-1924 National Flag Conference.

President Eisenhower signed off on the "under God" clause in 1954 after Congress passed the proposal that was backed by the Knights of Columbus."

(Reported by Hil Anderson in Los Angeles)

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