Washington D.C., Jun 13, 2004 / 22:00 pm
A constitutional challenge to the phrase “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance that is recited every day by U.S. schoolchildren, has been dismissed by the Supreme Court on the grounds that the challenger, atheist Michael Newdow, “lacks standing” to speak on behalf of his daughter.
Newdow’s challenge argued that the wording of the pledge violates his right to raise his daughter according to his own beliefs.
The broader question of whether the Pledge of Allegiance violates the separation of church and state was effectively sidestepped by the ruling which stated that Newdow, who is engaged in a custody battle with his daughter’s mother, does not have sufficient authority, and thus the legal right, to speak for his child.
"When hard questions of domestic relations are sure to affect the outcome, the prudent course is for the federal court to stay its hand rather than reach out to resolve a weighty question of federal constitutional law," said Justice John Paul Stevens.
The Supreme Court’s 8-0 ruling came on the 50th anniversary of the addition of the words "under God" to the pledge in an effort, during the cold war, to distinguish American patriotism, which has religious roots, from that of communism, which is overtly atheistic. Congress adopted the new wording on June 14, 1954.