Judge Roy Moore and Foundation for Moral Law File Brief Defending "Under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance

Date: June 13, 2006

Case: Jan Roe and RoeChild-2 v. Rio Linda Union School District

Issue: “Under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance

Former Chief Justice Roy Moore and the Foundation for Moral Law have filed an amicus curiae brief asking the federal 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to allow schoolchildren to say we are “one nation under God ” in the Pledge of Allegiance.  In this case, atheist Michael Newdow has again sued to stop schools from allowing children to acknowledge God in our Pledge, and a federal district court judge in California agreed with him.  Judge Moore and attorneys Greg Jones and Ben DuPré argued for the Foundation that the federal courts should go by the text of the U.S. Constitution—“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion”—and not their own feelings and predilections. (Click here to see the brief.)

Judge Moore, the Foundation's Chairman, stated: “Since our inception as a Nation, we have been ‘one Nation under God.'  When that phrase was added to the Pledge of Allegiance in 1954, the U.S. Congress recognized God's sovereignty.  It is ridiculous for judges today to pretend to know more than all the judges who preceded them from our earliest history.  As President Ronald Reagan once said, ‘If we ever forget that we are One Nation Under God, then we will be a nation gone under.'  It is time to stop this judicial activism.”

The removal of the acknowledgment of God continues to occur throughout our Nation. Last month, Judge Moore and the Foundation filed a legal brief defending the right of the Indiana House of Representatives to open with prayer in the name of Jesus.  Recently, Judge Moore appeared with Chaplain Gordon Klingenschmitt in our Nation's Capital protesting the Navy's policy forbidding prayers in the name of Jesus.

The Foundation for Moral Law will continue to remind federal judges that the First Amendment does not require the government to stamp out recognitions of God.  The Foundation will fight to defend our inalienable right to proclaim the truth that we are one nation under God.