Appeals court rules 'under God' in pledge is constitutional

August 11, 2005

(RNS) A federal appeals court has upheld a lower court ruling that the recitation of "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance by Virginia schoolchildren is constitutional.

"The Pledge, which is not a religious exercise, ... does not amount to an establishment of religion," wrote Judge Karen J. Williams in the Wednesday (Aug. 10) opinion of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

"Accordingly, the Recitation Statute, requiring daily, voluntary recitation of the Pledge in the classrooms of Virginia's public schools, is constitutional."

Edward Myers, a Loudoun County, Va., man affiliated with the Anabaptist-Mennonite faith, sued the Loudoun County Public Schools in 2002, claiming that the recitation of the pledge violated the First Amendment's Establishment Clause. He had two children in the district's schools at the time and said he was concerned that the county was indoctrinating them with a "`God and Country' religious worldview."

He appealed when a lower court dismissed the case, saying the law requiring the Pledge recitation did not have a religious purpose.

Williams affirmed the lower court's decision in her ruling, saying the pledge is a patriotic activity rather than a religious one.

"Undoubtedly the Pledge contains a religious phrase, and it is demeaning to persons of any faith to assert that the words 'under God' contain no religious significance," she wrote. "The inclusion of those two words, however, does not alter the nature of the Pledge as a patriotic activity."

Myers' lawyer, David Remes, said Wednesday that he and his client had not yet decided whether to appeal the case to the U.S. Supreme Court, the Associated Press reported.

"The problem is that young schoolchildren are quite likely to view the Pledge as affirming the existence of God and national subordination to God," Remes said. "The reference to God is one of the few things in the Pledge that children understand."

-- Adelle M. Banks