Newdow, allies challenge ‘under God’ in pledge

By Tom Strode - Jan 31, 2005

Michael Newdow has gained some allies in a renewed effort to remove the name of God from the Pledge of Allegiance.

Newdow, whose challenge to the words “under God” in the pledge was rejected by the Supreme Court in June, filed a federal lawsuit Jan. 4 in Sacramento, Calif., asking a court to rule as unconstitutional a 1954 law inserting the phrase about deity into the pledge, the Sacramento Bee reported. Eight others—parents of students in northern California public schools or students themselves—joined Newdow in the suit, according to the Bee.

The co-plaintiffs provide Newdow’s case with something the high court said last year he did not have—legal standing. The justices reversed a federal appeals court decision without deciding whether “under God” is constitutional. Instead, a majority of the court ruled Newdow, as a father without primary custody of his elementary-age daughter, did not have standing to represent her in the suit.

The parents who are co-plaintiffs with Newdow have custody of their children. They and the students joining in his latest challenge are atheists, agnostics or pantheists, according to the Bee. Newdow is an atheist.

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