Posted: 9/14/2005 10:19:08 PM EDT
[#17]
1) The last time I checked WA falls under the authority of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circui thus this topic is applicable to the WA HTF. 2) Prior suits had the plantiff practically specifying and agreeing that no one is being forced to to participate in reciting the Pledge. MICHAEL A. NEWDOW, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. US CONGRESS; UNITED STATES OFAMERICA; GEORGE W. BUSH*, No. 00-16423
Michael Newdow appeals a judgment dismissing his chal- lenge to the constitutionality of the words "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag. Newdow argues that the addition of these words by a 1954 federal statute to the previ- ous version of the Pledge of Allegiance (which made no refer- ence to God) and the daily recitation in the classroom of the Pledge of Allegiance, with the added words included, by his daughter's public school teacher are violations of the Estab- lishment Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.
FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND Newdow is an atheist whose daughter attends public ele- mentary school in the Elk Grove Unified School District ("EGUSD") in California. In accordance with state law and a school district rule, EGUSD teachers begin each school day by leading their students in a recitation of the Pledge of Alle- giance ("the Pledge"). The California Education Code requires that public schools begin each school day with "ap- propriate patriotic exercises" and that "[t]he giving of the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America shall satisfy" this requirement. Cal. Educ. Code § 52720 (1989) (hereinafter "California statute").1 To imple- ment the California statute, the school district that Newdow's daughter attends has promulgated a policy that states, in perti- nent part: "Each elementary school class [shall] recite the pledge of allegiance to the flag once each day." 2 _________________________________________________________________ 1 The relevant portion of California Education Code § 52720 reads: In every public elementary school each day during the school year at the beginning of the first regularly scheduled class or activity period at which the majority of the pupils of the school normally begin the schoolday, there shall be conducted appropri- ate patriotic exercises. The giving of the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America shall satisfy the require- ments of this section. 2 The SCUSD, the school district that Newdow claims his daughter may in the future attend, has promulgated a similar rule: "Each school shall conduct patriotic exercises daily . . . . The Pledge of Allegiance to the flag will fulfill this requirement." However, as discussed infra, Newdow lacks standing to challenge the SCUSD's rule requiring recitation of the Pledge. The classmates of Newdow's daughter in the EGUSD are led by their teacher in reciting the Pledge codified in federal law. On June 22, 1942, Congress first codified the Pledge as "I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of Amer- ica and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation indi- visible, with liberty and justice for all." Pub. L. No. 623, Ch. 435, § 7, 56 Stat. 380 (1942) (codified at 36 U.S.C. § 172). On June 14, 1954, Congress amended Section 172 to add the words "under God" after the word "Nation. " Pub. L. No. 396, Ch. 297, 68 Stat. 249 (1954) ("1954 Act"). The Pledge is cur- rently codified as "I 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 jus- tice for all." 4 U.S.C. § 4 (1998) (Title 36 was revised and recodified by Pub. L. No. 105-225, § 2(a), 112 Stat. 1494 (1998). Section 172 was abolished, and the Pledge is now found in Title 4.) Newdow does not allege that his daughter's teacher or school district requires his daughter to participate in reciting the Pledge.3 Rather, he claims that his daughter is injured when she is compelled to "watch and listen as her state- employed teacher in her state-run school leads her classmates in a ritual proclaiming that there is a God, and that our's [sic] is `one nation under God.' "
|
How about those facts?
|
|