9th Circuit: Pledge Of Allegiance is OK After All
[Guest post by DRJ]
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed itself today:
“A divided federal appeals court Thursday reversed itself, ruling that the Pledge of Allegiance doesn’t violate the constitutional prohibition against state-mandated religious exercise even though it contains the phrase “one nation under God.”
The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling in 2002, which deemed that requiring students to recite the pledge violated their rights to be free of religious indoctrination by the government, was one of the most controversial to come out of the court that is second only to the U.S. Supreme Court in its power to determine law for nine Western states and two Pacific territories.”
Judge Stephen Reinhardt again found his way onto the panel and was the lone dissenter. The Court also rejected a challenge by the same plaintiff, Michael Newdow, to the phrase “In God We Trust” printed on the national money.
I’m glad these opinions weren’t issued on April 1st.
— DRJ
Judge Stephen Reinhardt dissents… just one more example of the lasting damage Jimmy Carter did to the United States of America.
GeneralMalaise (d63092) — 3/11/2010 @ 5:49 pmThere has been something … puzzling … about how often Reinhardt ends up on panels considering politically controversial topics.
SPQR (26be8b) — 3/11/2010 @ 6:43 pmSPQR – Oddly enough, he is nearly always on the exact wrong side of an issue too.
JD (cc3aa7) — 3/11/2010 @ 6:50 pmThe Court also rejected a challenge by the same plaintiff, Michael Newdow
Professional pest, Michael Newdow.
Subotai (76ce87) — 3/11/2010 @ 7:56 pmEven when I hear of “good news” like this, I wonder if somehow they used legal arguments which will cause trouble down the road.
MD in Philly (70a1ba) — 3/11/2010 @ 8:16 pm“one nation under God.”
In light of the most visible political figure in this country right now, referring to a guy who not long ago was a close friend of Jeremiah Wright, we should be relieved the pledge of allegiance at least hasn’t been changed to “one nation damned by God….”
Mark (411533) — 3/11/2010 @ 9:44 pmI’m shocked that Betty Fletcher voted with Bea. She’s a Carter appointee just like Reinhardt, and I would bet they vote the same way 95% of the time when they are on a case together. Newdow must be in shock that he lost Fletcher’s vote.
But, Fletcher knows that voting the way she did means there is NO chance for an en banc review, the Supreme Court won’t take it, and this issue is now DEAD in the 9th Circuit — and probably anywhere else as well.
shipwreckedcrew (c0d6cd) — 3/11/2010 @ 11:20 pmMy bad — it was Dorothy Nelson, not Betty Fletcher that voted with Bea.
That’s even more inexplicable. I never thought she had any spine.
shipwreckedcrew (c0d6cd) — 3/12/2010 @ 1:32 amIf Dr Newdow doesn’t want money with “In God We Trust” on it, he may send all of his to me, and I will send him the same sum back, without those offensive words printed on it.
The helpful Dana (3e4784) — 3/12/2010 @ 3:50 amI don’t mean to insult anybody but there seems to be a lot of nuts who are ER docs. Newdow is one and counts for more since he is such a pest. Another one was Jeffrey MacDonald who was chief of the ER at Long Beach Memorial and very big hospital. The specialty allows a lot of transient employment, different hospitals, shift work, no office or overhead. It’s now very popular with medical students.
Mike K (2cf494) — 3/12/2010 @ 5:00 amin my copy of this case, it also had a pretty startling last line:
“Mr. Newdow is also hereby under an injunction requiring him to stop making a federal case out of everything, to grow up and get a life.”
no, not really, but i felt it had to be said.
A.W. (e7d72e) — 3/12/2010 @ 6:32 amFunny stuff, AW!
GeneralMalaise (d63092) — 3/12/2010 @ 7:56 amCan’t one of you Calif. lawyers pro bono for his wife? If she can get full custody of the child and about 10 thou a month support you could deny this joker standing and financing all in one swell foop.
Call it a public service.
Robert N. (b4f76a) — 3/12/2010 @ 3:33 pmIf the churches ever paid taxes like we peons do, or had to operate with the same constraints we do (I’m from a family that often had to depend on our side businesses, and we had endless trouble with church-based competition that was treated much better by the law than we were—the fire marshals would never have gone after a church-based nursery school the way they did after my mom’s, just for one example) I’d be a little more sympathetic to them.
As things stand, I think Enver Hoxha had one good idea in his life, when he abolished religion in Albania.
Technomad (e2c0f2) — 3/14/2010 @ 1:11 am