Abstract

THE BATTLE OVER THE PLEDGE

The author discusses the U.S. Supreme Court case, "Elk Grove Unified School District v. Michael A. Newdow," and the long-running controversies surrounding the recitation of the pledge of allegiance in American schools. In the summer of 2002 Michael Newdow, a pro se defendant with several bees in his bonnet about family law, religion and government, won a 2-to-1 victory in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, where Judge Alfred Goodwin agreed with him that schoolroom recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance, with the 1954 addition of "under God" to its text, violates the establishment clause of the First Amendment. To cut through the semantic fog, we can start by asking, What is the Pledge of Allegiance and where did it come from? Grammar school is where you're supposed to learn not only how to write and speak (the grammar part) but also the words and texts of our shared civic life. No surprise, then, that it was a schoolteacher, Francis Bellamy, who in 1892 arranged to have children observe the 400th anniversary of Columbus's landing with a little ceremony that centered on a "pledge of allegiance" to the Stars and Stripes that he had written. Bellamy was well connected, and soon his Pledge of Allegiance was being recited by students all across the country. And flag worship intensified in 1954, when the Knights of Columbus persuaded President Eisenhower to add the words "under God." Newdow claims that the "under God" phrase in the 1954 Pledge violates the clause in the First Amendment reading "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion. Secular liberals and church-state separationists supporting Newdow gloomily anticipate that, yes, the Court will uphold the school district's appeal.