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Custody and the Pledge of Allegiance

By ALM Staff | Law Journal Newsletters |
October 01, 2003

The grant of joint custody to a parent may give him standing to challenge the Pledge of Allegiance. Michael Newdow, who lost custody of his daughter in February 2002, has regained partial legal custody, which may increase the chances that the U.S. Supreme Court will take up his controversial First Amendment challenge to the words “under God” in the Pledge. The change in custody is just the latest unusual twist in the Pledge cases, which Newdow, who is licensed as both a physician and a lawyer, is handling pro se.

Background

The appeal stems from a series of rulings by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. In June 2002, a three-judge panel agreed with Newdow that the Pledge violates the establishment clause of the First Amendment because of the 1954 federal law that added the words “under God” to its text. After the ruling, the girl's mother, Sandra Banning, notified the appeals court that Newdow did not have legal custody of his daughter and that, as the sole custodial parent, she had no objection to her daughter reciting the Pledge with its reference to God. Backing the mother, the Bush Administration filed a supplemental brief arguing that Newdow lacked standing to mount his challenge.

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