Ooops! Cerel-Killer already had a thread started on this: [url]http://www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?id=131796[/url]
Not what you think, but in the court case he claimed his daughter was injured by having to listen to the pledge.
Now that the child's mother, who was never merried to Newdow and has full custody, has come out and said that the 8 year old says the pledge of her own free will and is a Christian, he is now claiming he was injured!
What a jerk!
[url]http://www.foxnews.com./story/0,2933,57511,00.html[/url]
SAN FRANCISCO — The California schoolgirl whose atheist father successfully sued to have the Pledge of Allegiance declared unconstitutional has no problem with reciting the pledge, her mother said Thursday.
"I was concerned that the American public would be led to believe that my daughter is an atheist or that she has been harmed by reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, including the words 'one nation under God,"' said the mother, Sandra Banning, in a statement. "In our home we are practicing Christians and are active in our church."
Banning, of Elk Grove, has never been married to Michael Newdow, the third-grader's father, a Sacramento physician and attorney who is representing himself.
It was her first public comment since the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with Newdow that the words "under God," inserted by Congress in 1954, make the pledge an unconstitutional endorsement of religion.
The San Francisco court based its June 26 ruling in part on Newdow's claim that the girl was "injured" by being forced to listen to others recite the pledge at the Elk Grove Unified School District.
Banning, who declined through her attorney to be interviewed, has full custody of the child, which Newdow also is challenging in court.
But Newdow said in an interview Thursday that he also has the right to determine how she's brought up.
"This is MY issue. I have a right to send my child to a public school without the government inculcating any religious beliefs. I'm saying I'M injured," he said.
Some legal experts said the mother's revelation that the girl herself willingly recites the pledge in class could cast doubts on the legitimacy of the case, giving the court grounds to dismiss it or send it to a lower court to weigh the allegations.