Hearing ‘Under God’ in Pledge of Allegiance Does Not Violate Rights of Atheist Students, Judge Rules

Hearing the Pledge of Allegiance at school every day – including the words “under God” – does not violate the constitutional rights of atheist students, a state judge has ruled.

A student filed a lawsuit last year against the Matawan-Aberdeen school district in Monmouth County, arguing that the phrase “under God” fostered a climate of discrimination in the classroom because it exalted religion and made non-believers feel like “second-class citizens.”

The student and his parents – who are not identified in court papers – filed suit along with the American Humanist Association, a national group of atheists that teaches social responsibility. Attorneys argued that the student felt marginalized hearing the pledge every day “just as America’s Jews, Hindus, and Muslims would feel excluded, marginalized and stigmatized if they were told by their government on a daily basis that the United States is one nation ‘under Jesus.’”

State Superior Court Judge David F. Bauman dismissed the case in February, noting that the student was free to skip the pledge. The judge upheld a New Jersey law that says pupils must recite the Pledge of Allegiance unless they have “conscientious scruples” that do not allow it.

Quoting George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Dwight D. Eisenhower and the New Jersey Constitution, Bauman said the United States for centuries has woven small aspects of religion and references to God into its customs and traditions – not as an endorsement of any faith, but as an acknowledgement of the role religion played in the country’s founding. (Read more from “Hearing ‘Under God’ in Pledge of Allegiance Does Not Violate Rights of Atheist Students, Judge Rules” HERE)

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