"...one nation, UNDER GOD, indivisible..."

[82Rigger]

By TERENCE CHEA, Associated Press Writer Terence Chea, Associated Press Writer – 11 Mar 2010


SAN FRANCISCO – A federal appeals court in San Francisco upheld the use of the words "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance and "In God We Trust" on U.S. currency, rejecting arguments on Thursday that the phrases violate the separation of church and state.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel rejected two legal challenges by Sacramento atheist Michael Newdow, who claimed the references to God disrespect his religious beliefs.

"The Pledge is constitutional," Judge Carlos Bea wrote for the majority in the 2-1 ruling. "The Pledge of Allegiance serves to unite our vast nation through the proud recitation of some of the ideals upon which our Republic was founded."

The same court ruled in Newdow's favor in 2002 after he sued his daughter's school district for having students recite the pledge at school.

That lawsuit reached the U.S. Supreme Court in 2004, but the high court ruled that Newdow lacked the legal standing to file the suit because he didn't have custody of his daughter, on whose behalf he brought the case.

So Newdow, who is a doctor and lawyer, filed an identical challenge on behalf of other parents who objected to the recitation of the pledge at school. In 2005, a federal judge in Sacramento decided in Newdow's favor, ruling that the pledge was unconstitutional.

"I want to be treated equally," Newdow said when he argued the case before the 9th Circuit in December 2007. He added that supporters of the phrase "want to have their religious views espoused by the government."

In a separate 3-0 ruling Thursday, the appeals court upheld the inscription of the national motto "In God We Trust" on coins and currency, saying that the phrase is ceremonial and patriotic, not religious.

Reached on his cell phone, Newdow said he hadn't been aware that the appeals court had ruled against him Thursday.

"Oh man, what a bummer," he said.

Newdow said he would comment further after he had read the decisions.

[WateringHole]

One for the Christians

[1CAVCCO15MED]

One of the antireligionist's favorite tool is to cite the Constitution to show this is nothing new, this is what it says in the Constitution. But in fact it is new and definitely not what the framers intended. On the same note, I hope we are going to see the disarming of the honest people of the inner cities overturned by an upcoming Supreme Court ruling. Opponents say gun violence will increase. I say I certainly hope so as good people are able to fight back against the coward ambushers of the drug lords and the gangs. For so long these thugs have equated aggression as enforcing respect. It is time for courage to once more be the arbitrar of respect as the thugs run screaming into their holes. Maybe that will introduce religion to them as they pray for their lives.

[darrels joy]

"Armageddon never arrived," John Lott Jr. points out in a March 1 essay for FOXNews.com. Quite to the contrary, murders in Washington plummeted by a whopping 25 percent from 2008 to 2009, Mr. Lott reports. D.C.'s murder rate "is now down to 23.5 per 100,000 people, Washington's lowest since 1967."