You've gotta be kidding! The Pledge of Allegience is unconstitutional?
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Stunning politicians on both the left and right, a federal appeals court declared for the first time Wednesday that reciting the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools is unconstitutional because of the words "under God" inserted by Congress in 1954.
The ruling, if allowed to stand, would mean schoolchildren could no longer recite the pledge, at least in the nine Western states covered by the court.
Those wacky judges! What I really have to wonder about is why they took the case in the first place. Then I read a little further:
The 9th Circuit is the nation's most overturned appellate court — partly because it is the largest, but also because it tends to make liberal, activist opinions, and because the cases it hears — on a range of issues from environmental laws to property rights to civil rights — tend to challenge the status quo.
God save us from glory hounds looking to force their will on the rest of us!
You know, I think I'll sue the schools for forcing my kids to listen to the Pledge of Allegience, because it forces them to take an oath which is not supported by the Constitution. For example, "indivisible" is not a Constitutional concept, so why should we have to pledge our allegiance to it?
That would be no more ridiculous than Nednow's complaint.
Posted by Rich at June 26, 2002 11:32 PM