under_god_60203

Posted: 5/30/03

Bush administration asks court to allow 'under God'

WASHINGTON (RNS)–The Bush administration has formally asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overrule a lower court decision and allow the Pledge of Allegiance to include the words “one nation under God.”

U.S. Solicitor General Theodore Olson said last summer's ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that said the pledge violates the separation of church and state is “manifestly contrary” to previous church-state cases.

“Whatever else the (First Amendment) may prohibit, this court's precedents make it clear that it does not forbid the government from officially acknowledging the religious heritage, foundation and character of this nation,” Olson wrote in his argument.

California atheist Michael Newdow sued in 2000, saying his daughter should not be forced to listen to the Pledge of Allegiance in her classroom. The first court to hear the case dismissed it, but the San Francisco-based appeals court ruled in Newdow's favor.

A three-judge panel found that the phrase “one nation under God”–inserted into the pledge in 1954–amounts to government endorsement of religion. The court's ruling affected only the nine Western states in its jurisdiction.

But after a public outcry, the court stepped back and stayed its decision pending appeals. On March 3, the court refused to change its decision. “We may not–we must not–allow public sentiment or outcry to guide our decisions,” Judge Stephen Reinhardt wrote.

Olson also questioned whether Newdow could bring the suit since he does not have custody of his daughter. After the initial ruling, the girl's mother said she had no problem with her daughter reciting or hearing the pledge.

Newdow and his attorneys will now have a chance to respond. Four of the court's nine justices, however, must vote to hear the case. Olson said the appeals court ruling is so “irreconcilable” with earlier decisions that it should be overturned without the oral arguments and a formal ruling from the high court.