One Constitution, Under Principle

from The League: Reassembled

U.S. District Judge Lawrence Karlton "declared Wednesday that the reciting of the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools is unconstitutional," according to a CNN report. The judge corrently ruled that the pledge's reference to one nation "'under God' violates school children's right to be "free from a coercive requirement to affirm God" and is thus unconstitutional

The Disestablishment and Free Exercise clauses of the First Amendment prohibit the government from indoctrinating citizens, including children, into religious belief. Forcing a child to recite a pledge daily is indoctrination at its most explicit. When the pledge includes an affirmation of 1. the existence of God and 2. a specific characteristic of this God (ie that the God is over the United States), the government is engaged in indoctrinating citizens into religious beliefs. For this reason, Judge Karlton was wise to rule that daily reciting of the pledge in public schools unconstitutional.

The Religious Right will almost certainly take advantage of this decision by inappropriately portraying it as an attack on religion. However, if the pledge required students to say "We are one nation with no god," I am willing to bet the Christian Right would be more than happy to embrace the principled rejection of religious indoctrination that provided the basis for the decision. Whatever the religious or anti-religious belief in question, government is prohibited by the constitution from establishing or propogating it.

Unfortunately, the ruling only applies to the Sacramento area until it is upheld or struck down by a higher court.

from The League: Reassembled