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1 1 (June 18, 2004)

handle is hein.crs/crsuntaabko0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Order Code RS21250 Updated June 18, 2004 CRS Report for Congress Received through the CRS Web The Constitutionality of Including the Phrase Under God in the Pledge of Allegiance Angie A. Welborn Legislative Attorney American Law Division Summary On June 26, 2002, a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit had held both the 1954 federal statute adding the words under God to the Pledge of Allegiance and a California school district policy requiring teachers to lead willing school children in reciting the Pledge each school day to violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. The modification issued on February 28, 2003, eliminated the holding regarding the federal statute but retained the ruling holding that the California statute coerces children into participating in a religious exercise. The court also denied requests for a rehearing and a rehearing en banc of the original decision. The Ninth Circuit stayed the implementation of its revised ruling pending Supreme Court review. On October 14, 2003, the Supreme Court granted certiorari in the appeal regarding the California statute, and on June 14, 2004, the Court reversed the Ninth Circuit' s decision finding that Newdow lacked standing to challenge the school district's policy in federal court. This report summarizes the facts of the case, the opinions that have been rendered, congressional action, and the appeal to the Supreme Court. It will be updated as circumstances warrant. Background. On June 22, 1942, Congress codified the Pledge of Allegiance with no reference to God.' On June 14, 1954, Congress amended the Pledge by adding the words under God.2 Subsequently, California enacted a statute requiring appropriate patriotic exercises to be conducted in every public elementary school each day and providing that recitation of the Pledge would satisfy this requirement.3 After the Elk Grove Unified School District implemented a policy requiring its elementary school classes to recite the Pledge every morning, an atheist father of a second-grade student objected. Although his daughter was not required to participate, he contended that she 1 See P.L. 623, Ch. 435, § 7, 56 Stat. 380 (1942). 2 See P.L. 396, Ch. 297, 68 Stat. 249 (1954). The Pledge is currently codified as I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. 4 U.S.C. § 4. 3 See Cal. Educ. Code § 52720 (1989). Congressional Research Service + The Library of Congress

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