'Under God' in Pledge Challenged in Mass. Supreme Court
Massachusetts’ highest court is considering whether the daily recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools discriminates against atheist students. Anonymous atheist parents asked the state’s Supreme Court on Sep. 4, 2013 to ban pledge recitation statewide because they contend the phrase “under God” violates the rights of students who do not believe in God.
Attorney David Niose, representing the parents and the American Humanist Association (AHA), stated that “children every morning are pledging their national unity and loyalty in an indoctrinating format, in a way that validates God belief as truly patriotic and actually invalidates atheism.” Niose argued that some children are therefore “denied meaningful participation in this patriotic exercise.”
Several failed challenges to the Pledge have been made in the past, including Elk Grove Unified School District, et al. v. Newdow, which reached the US Supreme Court in 2004. However, previous cases have been made on the grounds that the Pledge violates the Establishment (of religion) Clause in the US Constitution. The current Massachusetts case, however, claims that recitation of the Pledge violates the guarantee of equal rights under the state constitution.
Eric Rossbach, an attorney with the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty arguing on behalf of the defendents (the Acton-Boxborough Regional School District), stated that the plaintiffs are “grasping at straws… They know they would lose again if they tried it under the First Amendment, so now they are trying a new tack.” Rossbach stated after the hearing that the Pledge is “not a religious statement… no one is getting up there and saying a prayer when they say the Pledge of Allegiance.”
The Pledge of Allegiance was first written in 1892 for a magazine contest, and it read: “I Pledge Allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands; one nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” The Pledge became part of the US Flag Code in 1942, and in 1954 President Eisenhower and Congress added the phrase “under God” into the Pledge.