{"id":962,"date":"2003-03-01T02:23:59","date_gmt":"2003-03-01T18:23:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2003\/03\/01\/pledge-ruling-upheld\/"},"modified":"2019-12-06T08:44:02","modified_gmt":"2019-12-06T16:44:02","slug":"pledge-ruling-upheld","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2003\/03\/01\/pledge-ruling-upheld\/","title":{"rendered":"Pledge ruling upheld"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class='__iawmlf-post-loop-links' style='display:none;' data-iawmlf-post-links='[{&quot;id&quot;:15199,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/www.nytimes.com\\\/aponline\\\/national\\\/AP-Pledge-of-Allegiance.html&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:null,&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:15200,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/reuters.com\\\/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&amp;storyID=2308789&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/web-wp.archive.org\\\/web\\\/20050628015144\\\/http:\\\/\\\/www.reuters.com\\\/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-13 16:21:07&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:401}],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-13 16:21:07&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:401},&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:15201,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/www.msnbc.com\\\/news\\\/878913.asp?0sl=-22&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/www.ms.now\\\/news\\\/878913.asp?0sl=-22&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:null,&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:15202,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/www.metafilter.com\\\/comments.mefi\\\/23948&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/web-wp.archive.org\\\/web\\\/20260313162514\\\/https:\\\/\\\/www.metafilter.com\\\/comments.mefi\\\/23948&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/www.metafilter.com\\\/comments.mefi\\\/23948&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-14 13:57:21&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200}],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-14 13:57:21&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:15203,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/boingboing.net\\\/2003_02_01_archive.html#90390975&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/web-wp.archive.org\\\/web\\\/20110623145752\\\/http:\\\/\\\/boingboing.net\\\/2003_02_01_archive.html&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-13 16:21:25&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:403}],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-13 16:21:25&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:403},&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;}]'><\/div>\n<p>Back in June, when the Pledge of Allegiance was <a href=\"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2002\/06\/good_ruling_bad.html\" title=\"Good ruling, bad timing\">ruled unconstitutional<\/a> because the words &#8220;under God&#8221; encroached on the division between church and state, I didn&#8217;t think that the ruling would stand. In a nation where if you don&#8217;t support the President&#8217;s holy crusade you&#8217;re just another one of those damn dirty traitors, I expected the public outcry would end up pushing the courts into overturning the ruling.<\/p>\n<p>I was <em>quite<\/em> pleasantly surprised to read yesterday that the appeals court has rejected the request to reconsider the ruling, letting it stand as-is.<\/p>\n<p>From the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/aponline\/national\/AP-Pledge-of-Allegiance.html\" title=\"Court upholds ruling against 'under God'\">New York Times<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\n  A federal appeals court stood by its ruling that reciting the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools is unconstitutional because of the words &#8220;under God,&#8221; perhaps setting the stage for a U.S. Supreme Court fight over a decision that prompted a nationwide outcry.<\/p>\n<p>  Bush administration officials strongly condemned Friday&#8217;s ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, though they stopped short of saying they would appeal to the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n<p>  &#91;Judge Steven&#93; Reinhardt lashed out at the &#8220;disturbingly wrong-headed&#8221; dissent that public outcry over the pledge ruling should have persuaded the circuit to reconsider.<\/p>\n<p>  &#8220;The Bill of Rights is, of course, intended to protect the rights of those in the minority against the temporary passions of a majority which might wish to limit their freedoms or liberties,&#8221; Reinhardt wrote.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>And from <a href=\"http:\/\/reuters.com\/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&amp;storyID=2308789\" title=\"U.S. Court Stands by Controversial Pledge Ruling\">Reuters<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\n  In defending the ruling, defiant 9th Circuit Judge Stephen Reinhardt said that the court would not be swayed by public outrage over one of its decisions and did not consider the &#8220;importance of an issue&#8221; good enough reason to rehear a legal ruling that it considered correct.<\/p>\n<p>  &#8220;We may not &#8212; we must not &#8212; allow public sentiment or outcry to guide our decisions,&#8221; Reinhardt wrote.<\/p>\n<p>  &#8220;It is particularly important that we understand the nature of our obligations and the strength of our constitutional principles in times of national crisis,&#8221; he wrote. &#8220;It is then that our freedoms and our liberties are in the greatest peril.&#8221;\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Not terribly surprisingly, Attorney General John Ashcroft has sworn to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.msnbc.com\/news\/878913.asp?0sl=-22\" title=\"U.S. to challenge pledge ruling\">appeal to the Supreme Court<\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\n  &#8220;THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT will spare no effort to preserve the rights of all our citizens to pledge allegiance to the American flag,&#8221; Ashcroft said in a statement issued in Washington shortly after the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco declined to reconsider its ruling. &#8220;We will defend the ability of Americans to declare their patriotism through the time-honored tradition of voluntarily reciting the pledge.&#8221;\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>John, John, John. I&#8217;m no legal expert, but I haven&#8217;t gotten the impression that the Pledge of Allegiance has been banned outright &#8212; only that it is not to be a school-sponsored activity. All Americans still have the right and the ability to voluntarily declare their patriotism <em>any way they want to<\/em> whenever they want. They just shouldn&#8217;t be <em>forced<\/em> to do so in ways that may conflict with their personal beliefs. I have to admit, the mental picture of a man like Ashcroft &#8212; who&#8217;s likely to equate Wiccanism with &#8216;Satanism&#8217; &#8212; trying to cope with the concept of a &#8220;patriotic Witch&#8221; makes me laugh. A lot.Atheists and Agnostics can be patriotic, as can Muslims, Hindus, Baha&#8217;i, Buddhists, and so on. Heck, I&#8217;d bet that even Jehovah&#8217;s Witnesses and Wiccans can be patrotic! But they don&#8217;t believe in &#8216;God&#8217;, and shouldn&#8217;t be required to profess a belief that they do not hold.<\/p>\n<p>Anyway, the original ruling was made. That ruling has now been confirmed. Now it appears that it may fall to the Supreme Court to finish this off. We&#8217;ll see how things end up if this does end up heading their way, but in the meantime, congratulations to Judge Reinheart and the rest of the Court of Appeals.<\/p>\n<p>(Via <a href=\"http:\/\/www.metafilter.com\/comments.mefi\/23948\" title=\"Circuit Court refuses to hear Allegiance case\">MeFi<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/boingboing.net\/2003_02_01_archive.html#90390975\" title=\"Appeals court won't reconsider ban on Pledge of Allegiance 'under God'\">BoingBoing<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I have to admit, the mental picture of a man like Ashcroft &mdash; who&#8217;s likely to equate Wiccanism with &#8216;Satanism&#8217; &mdash; trying to cope with the concept of a &#8216;patriotic Witch&#8217; makes me laugh. A lot.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2042],"tags":[14],"class_list":["post-962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=962"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/962\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}