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.