By David Kravets
Associated Press
Mar. 5, 2003
SAN FRANCISCO - A federal appellate court on Tuesday put on hold its ruling
barring the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance in public classrooms, pending
an appeal to the Supreme Court.
The order followed a request by the Elk Grove Unified School District near Sacramento. The daughter of the man whose suit led the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to find the pledge unconstitutional attends school there.
Without Tuesday's stay, public schools in nine Western states would have been banned, beginning next Monday, from reciting the pledge, with its reference to "under God." Those states are Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Nevada, Montana, Oregon and Washington.
The stay gives the school district 90 days to ask the Supreme Court to review the Appeals Court's ruling. Elk Grove Superintendent Dave Gordon said the district will ask the court to hear the case by the end of April.
A Justice Department spokesman said the government had no comment on Tuesday's order and said the Bush administration was still considering whether it would also appeal.
In June and again last Friday, the San Francisco-based Appeals Court ruled that the pledge is an unconstitutional endorsement of religion when recited in public schools.
The Elk Grove district was the target of a lawsuit filed by Michael Newdow, a Sacramento atheist, who alleged that his daughter shouldn't be forced to take part in reciting the pledge.
Newdow said he did not object to Tuesday's order. "I'll let it play itself out," he said.
California law requires schools to conduct a patriotic observance at the beginning of each school day. Elk Grove officials planned to have students sing the national anthem instead of the pledge if the ruling was not delayed.
Tuesday's ruling was "very good news, because we want to see the matter heard before the Supreme Court, and we want our children to keep saying the pledge as written until such time as the Supreme Court rules," said Elk Grove Superintendent Gordon.
The high court is almost certain to take the case to resolve the conflict among
the circuit courts of appeal, experts said. The Chicago-based 7th U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals, in a similar challenge, ruled in 1992 that reciting the pledge
in public schools was not an unconstitutional endorsement of religion.
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