Elk Grove Unified School District V Newdow Summary

Elk Grove Unified School District v. Newdow: The Supreme Court case in Elk Grove Unified School District v. Newdow result in a unanimous ruling that the phrase “under God” may remain in the Pledge of Allegiance as narrated in public school classrooms. The court made the decision because the atheist father did not have grounds to sue the school district on behalf of his daughter. While the ruling was made on the Flag Day, it did not meet the clear endorsement of the constitutionality of the pledge as sought by President Bush and leaders of Republican and Democratic Parties in Congress. Notably, the eight judges who participated in the case had voted to turn over a federal appeals court decision in 2003 that would have prohibited the use

Newdow case, the United States Supreme Court faced two main issues. The first point in the issue was the determination of whether Michael A. Newdow, the atheist father, had the standing or legal right to challenge the constitutionality of a policy by the public school board that required willing students to be led in narrating the Pledge of Allegiance by teachers. The second point was to determine whether the Pledge of Allegiance, which had the phrase “under God”, was an infringement of the Establishment Clause of the country’s constitution. The determination on whether the phrase was a violation of the Establishment Clause is because this clause states that the Congress will not make any legislation that respects the establishment of religion. As a result, the clause has been interpreted as restricting governmental action to those that discriminate among religions and those that promote religion

Even though the amended opinion reflected its initial decision in some way, it did not consist of a discussion regarding the legality of the Congressional act in 1954. The amended decision was restricted to the narrower claims regarding whether Newdow had the right to challenge the school district’s policy of daily recitation of the Pledge and whether it was constitutional. In this case, the court concluded that daily recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance while led by teachers was an infringement of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The court based its decision on the fact that such an act impermissibly forces a religious