Court fails to resolve “under God” issue

Well, we’re still one nation under God, but perhaps not for long.

The United States Supreme… Well, we’re still one nation under God, but perhaps not for long.

The United States Supreme Court ruled 8-0 yesterday that “under God” could remain in the Pledge of Allegiance. It ruled not based on the merits of the case — which challenged the pledge by saying that the phrase put religion in the classroom, where it doesn’t belong — but because of custody issues concerning the child on whose behalf the case was brought.

Michael Newdow, the atheist who brought the case, has custody of his child 10 days a month, according to what he told the Associated Press, more than the every-other-weekend-and-holidays custody many divorced parents get with their kids. Yet, because his ex-wife, a born-again Christian, gets almost full custody –as she claims she does — the Court ruled that Newdow could not bring a case for his daughter.

It’s he said versus she said, with a child and the Constitution caught in the middle. Whichever side their daughter chooses, she’s not picking a legal argument, she’s picking a parent.

And, because the Court wussed out, another kid is going to be dragged through the legal process in order to resolve this issue. Debates concerning the Pledge are largely about students’ rights; a 1943 case, West Virginia v. Barnette ruled that forcing students to say the Pledge violated the First and 14th amendments.

Now, kids who want to say the Pledge, because they do pledge allegiance to their country, but not to God, can either say it with God or not say it at all. In this time of ardent, cloying patriotism, the latter might not go over so well.

This case shouldn’t be about election year politics or a Court too caught-up in easy-to-escape-from technicalities to take a stand on an issue. It should be about the kid — either Newdow’s kid or someone else’s — who’s not like the others kids and needs a Supreme Court decision in order not to get flack from his or her teacher, classmates or school district.

God does permeate a large part of our national culture. God is on our money, in the Declaration of Independence as the “Creator” and at the end of most presidential addresses. Because God plays such a big role in our national culture, we need a national institution, like the Supreme Court, to grow a spine and rule on it.

For now, Newdow’s daughter has, momentarily, been spared the spotlight, and some other father’s child will have to go through her ordeal before the case is decided.