US court rules atheist lacks right to challenge Pledge of Allegiance

THE US Supreme Court ruled yesterday that California atheist Michael Newdow lacked the right to bring a constitutional challenge to the words “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance, avoiding a decision on the key church-state issue.

By an 8-0 vote, the justices overturned a controversial decision by a US appeals court in California that reciting the phrase amounted to a violation of church-state separation.

The ruling by the justices was based on the technicality that Newdow could not bring the case before the court, because he did not have legal control over his daughter, on whose behalf he was arguing. The ruling came down on the 50th anniversary of the addition of the words "under God" to the pledge. The US Congress adopted the June 14, 1954, law in an effort to distinguish America's religious values and heritage from those of communism, which is atheistic.

Three court members Chief Justice William Rehnquist and Justices Sandra Day O'Connor and Clarence Thomas disagreed with the ruling that Newdow could not bring the case. They said they would have ruled that the words "under God" do not violate the Constitution.

Newdow, an emergency room doctor who has a law degree and acted as his own attorney in the case, sued because he objected to his daughter's saying the daily ritual at her school in Elk Grove.

The girl's mother, Sandra Banning, a born-again Christian, has custody of the nine-year-old girl on school days, when the pledge is recited, and supports her saying the pledge.

The US Justice Department and the California school district had argued that Newdow lacked legal standing or the right to bring the case.

The Supreme Court's majority opinion, written by Justice John Paul Stevens, agreed. He said the problem became apparent when Banning filed her motion declaring she has sole legal custody and is authorised to exercise legal control over her daughter. Millions of American students every day "pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

The case caused political uproar after the appeals court declared the "under God" part unconstitutional.