Supreme Court rejects yet another challenge to the Pledge of Allegiance

Washington, DC.- The Supreme Court rejected atheist activist Michael Newdow’s latest lawsuit challenging the words “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance.The Court rejected Newdow’s petition for review from the First Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston, which had turned back his attempt to stop schoolchildren in Hanover, New Hampshire — site of Dartmouth College — from reciting the Pledge voluntarily.

In March, the Supreme Court rejected Newdow’s petition for review from a loss in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. In both cases, Becket Law intervened in the lawsuit on behalf of school kids who wanted to keep saying the Pledge as is, as well as the Knights of Columbus, who originated the phrase “one nation under God.” Becket Founder Kevin J. “Seamus” Hasson argued the cases in Boston and San Francisco.

Becket’s briefs in the First Circuit and the Ninth Circuit showed the link between the Pledge and other statements like the Declaration of Independence and the Gettysburg Address that express the basic American philosophy that core civil rights are inalienable precisely because government does not create them in the first place–they are inherent in every human being.

For more background on this case, please visit our Pledge of Allegiance case page.

For more information or to arrange an interview with a Becket  attorney, please contact Melinda Skea at  media@becketlaw.org  or 202-349-7224. Interviews can be arranged in English, Chinese, French, German, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish.

###

Becket Law is a non-profit, public-interest law firm dedicated to protecting the free expression of all religious traditions. For over 20 years, it has defended clients of all faiths, including Buddhists, Christians, Jews, Hindus, Muslims, Native Americans, Sikhs, and Zoroastrians (read more). “