law

Atheist Newdow Pledges to Defeat Pledge

By Paul Strand
Washington Sr. Correspondent

CBN.com – ELK GROVE, California - The Pledge of Allegiance has again been banned in certain California schools -- and it is because of a case brought by atheist Michael Newdow.

But the attorney for the schools believes Newdow still has a losing case.

Michael Newdow sued once more after the U.S. Supreme Court tossed out his case, pointing out that he did not even have custody of the daughter he claimed was being hurt by having to say "under God" during the Pledge of Allegiance.

Newdow remarked, "There's no elected judge in the world...or at least the United States...who's going to say that 'under God' is unconstitutional because they won't be an elected judge anymore...they'll lose their job. So you have to get into federal court. The Supreme Court said I can't use federal court for myself. So I brought the case again, using other plaintiffs who hold the same views."

Now that a federal judge has gone along with Newdow and banned the pledge in three school districts in Sacramento County, it sets up what will almost certainly be a re-match in the Supreme Court.

Terence Cassidy, attorney for the school districts involved, fought Newdow in the high court before, and will argue again that, "The pledge is a patriotic exercise. It's not akin to a prayer and it's certainly not an excessive entanglement with the government. It is certainly just a representation of our religious tradition in the history of the United States."

Newdow claims that reciting the pledge violates students' freedom of religion. But Cassidy points out that "students recite the pledge on a voluntary basis. No student is ever forced to recite the pledge."

Newdow's former wife, Sandy Banning, just happens to be a big fan of the pledge, and an opponent of activist judges.

Banning, mother of Newdow's daughter, stated, "A judge's job is to interpret the Constitution and laws, not to be a social engineer who tries to remake our culture by ridding it of traditional values that we, the citizens, hold dear."

When the judge banned the pledge Wednesday, it was brought up a few minutes later at the Roberts’ confirmation hearing as a case of judicial activism run amok.

"This is an example, in my opinion,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said, “of where judges do not protect us from having the government impose religion upon us, but declare war on all things religious."

Newdow lost his case once, but it he is determined to keep trying until he wins.

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