SAN FRANCISCO — The Pledge of Allegiance, with its inclusion of the words “under God,” is constitutional, a federal appeals court ruled March 11, reversing a previous ruling.
The 2–1 ruling answers a challenge by California atheist Michael Newdow, who argued that the use of the pledge in a northern California school district — where children of atheists had to listen to others recite it — violated the First Amendment’s clause prohibiting the establishment of religion. The “students are being coerced to participate in a patriotic exercise, not a religious exercise,” the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled. “The Pledge is not a prayer and its recitation is not a religious exercise.”
In 2002, the 9th Circuit Court ruled that the use of the words “under God” in the pledge violated the Constitution. The current court called that decision “erroneous.” The Supreme Court later dismissed the earlier Newdow suit, sidestepping the church-state issues by finding he did not have standing to sue. In a separate decision, also issued March 11, the 9th Circuit dismissed Newdow’s challenge to the words “In God We Trust” on U.S. currency.
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