Here come the Culture Wars again!<\/a><\/p>\nReciting the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools was ruled unconstitutional Wednesday by a federal judge who granted legal standing to two families represented by an atheist who lost his previous battle before the U.S. Supreme Court.<\/p>\n
U.S. District Judge Lawrence Karlton 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.”<\/p>\n
Karlton said he was bound by precedent of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which in 2002 ruled in favor of Sacramento atheist Michael Newdow that the pledge is unconstitutional when recited in public schools.<\/p>\n
*Sigh*<\/p>\n
This is one of those where I can see (and even agree with) the philosophy and legalities behind this. At the same time, I also have a “ceremonial deism” bent that makes me want to shrug. After all, I know a lot of folks who grew up with the Pledge as a regular daily fixture who aren’t particularly reverent because of it (or, as far as I can tell, traumatized).<\/p>\n
That said, I so wish this hadn’t happened now. Because, frankly, it’s a knee-jerk rallying cry for the Right who desperately right now want to get peoples’ minds off of, oh, Katrina, etc., and are dying to latch onto an issue like this, shifting from what the government is doing for\/to us to some ideological debating point.<\/p>\n
Hell, I know the first question anyone’s going to ask of Roberts tomorrow — and one which he will, quite properly, decline to answer, only further fueling the rhetorical brouhaha.<\/p>\n
*Sigh*<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
*Sigh* And just when we’d been able to focus on things like Katrina to hold the GOP’s feet to the fire, or when we could listen to the Roberts confirmations…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-zt-pc"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":26155,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/02\/07\/californias-proposition-8-ruled-unconstitutional.html","url_meta":{"origin":8643,"position":0},"title":"California's Proposition 8 ruled unconstitutional","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 7-Feb-12 10:59am","format":false,"excerpt":"Yes. This.Of course, I expect this to go to SCOTUS, and who knows what will happen there, but it's still a large step forward in equal rights in this country. #ddtbReshared post from +Breaking NewsU.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rules that Prop 8 is unconstitutionalSan Francisco, Calif., USATue Feb 7:\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10177,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/08\/17\/unconstitutiona.html","url_meta":{"origin":8643,"position":1},"title":"Unconstitutional? Well, like that’s going to stop us …","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 17-Aug-06 3:12pm","format":false,"excerpt":"A Federal Judge has ruled that the NSA's warrantless wiretap program is -- shock! -- unconstitutional. A federal judge ruled Thursday that the government\u2019s warrantless wiretapping program is unconstitutional and...","rel":"","context":"In "Homeland Security"","block_context":{"text":"Homeland Security","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/homeland-security"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2424,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/06\/26\/one_nation_unde.html","url_meta":{"origin":8643,"position":2},"title":"One nation under God","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 26-Jun-02 2:18pm","format":false,"excerpt":"A federal appeals court has ruled that the Pledge of Allegiance is an unconstitutional governmental endorsement of religion, and cannot be recited in public schools. The phrase \"under God\" was...","rel":"","context":"In "Politics & Law"","block_context":{"text":"Politics & Law","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":28050,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/05\/31\/doma-ruled-unconstitutional-again-some-more.html","url_meta":{"origin":8643,"position":3},"title":"DOMA ruled unconstitutional (again, some more)","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 31-May-12 11:48am","format":false,"excerpt":"Good. It's the only federal law I'm aware of that trumps a state's traditional prerogative to decide who is or is not married by their law, and for no other reason than folks didn't like the idea of gay marriage. Embedded Link Appeals Court Rules DOMA Unconstitutional The federal government\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":41115,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/02\/13\/virginia-is-for-more-lovers.html","url_meta":{"origin":8643,"position":4},"title":"Virginia Is for (More) Lovers","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 13-Feb-14 9:48pm","format":false,"excerpt":"\"Virginia law that bars same-sex marriage or prohibits Virginia\u2019s recognition of lawful same-sex marriages from other jurisdictions ... deny Plaintiffs their rights to due process and equal protection guaranteed under the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution. ... Government interests in perpetuating traditions, shielding state matters from federal interference,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":32610,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/02\/23\/concealed-carry-not-a-constitutional-right.html","url_meta":{"origin":8643,"position":5},"title":"Concealed Carry not a constitutional right?","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 23-Feb-13 3:04pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Makes sense to me, though the federal courts have been quite inconsistent about it (and an appeals court just ruled that blanket banning of it was unconstitutional).Reshared post from +The Denver Post\"We conclude that the carrying of concealed firearms is not protected by the Second Amendment . . .\" Justice\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8643"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8643\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}