He’s back!!!

Michael Arthur Newdow,  best known for his efforts to ban recitations of the current version of the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools in the United States because of its inclusion of the phrase "under God", is back at it again.

Newdow, and several of his fellow atheists are suing government officials over the injection of religion into the presidential Inauguration with he lawsuit being filed today in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

In addition to the individuals accompanying Newdow in the suit, he is joined by several organizations including:THE AMERICAN HUMANIST ASSOCIATION (AHA), THE FREEDOM FROM RELIGION FOUNDATION (FFRF),  MINNESOTA ATHEISTS, ATHEISTS FOR HUMAN RIGHT[S] (AFHR), ATHEIST ALLIANCE INTERNATIONAL (AAI) and the NEW ORLEANS SECULAR HUMANIST ASSOCIATION (NOSHA).

Interesting enough, Newdow also listed “unnamed children” in the suit because he believed  that public prayers amounted to the “coercive imposition of religious dogma specifically denounced by the Supreme Court” in so many other similar court cases.

Newdow is not easily intimidated as  demonstrated by the list of those he is suing, namely:

• HON. JOHN ROBERTS, JR., CHIEF JUSTICE OF THE U.S. SUPREME COURT;
• PRESIDENTIAL INAUGURAL COMMITTEE (PIC);
• EMMETT BELIVEAU, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, PIC;
• JOINT CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE ON INAUGURAL CEREMONIES (JCCIC);
• SENATOR DIANNE FEINSTEIN, CHAIRPERSON, JCCIC;
• ARMED FORCES INAUGURAL COMMITTEE (AFIC);
• MAJOR GENERAL RICHARD J. ROWE JR., CHAIRPERSON, AFIC;
• REVERENDS RICK WARREN and JOE LOWERY

So what does Newdow and Friends hope to achieve for their efforts?

They want to stop “so help me God” from being said during this inauguration and the prayers in both the invocation and benediction.

Oh, they do want to “recover costs, expert witness fees, attorney fees,” etc. which is common in these situations

WHY?

Mr. Newdow’s primary objections  are the addition of “so help me god” to the presidential oath of office which, he says, violates the Establishment and Free Exercise Clauses of the First Amendment, and,

The government-sponsored use of any clergy at all during the inauguration violates the Establishment and Free Exercise Clauses of the First Amendment.

It’s a lawsuit against using religion at all in a presidential inauguration.

In 2005, Newdow sued for the same reasons and the courts rejected his suit.  I think it is important to note that we didn’t always have prayers in the Inauguration ceremony and they began with Franklin Roosevelt in 1937.

Another is that the phrase “so help me God” isn’t a historic precedent, either. Newdow writes that the first verifiable use of that phrase took place in “1881, ninety-two years after George Washington’s initial ceremony” — when “Chester A. Arthur took the oath upon hearing of President James Garfield’s death.”

Whatever the outcome, we at The Lang Report believe that this lawsuit is important as it reminds us that we must be vigilant in our efforts to keep “church and state” distinct and separate…….very separate!

****Thanks to the Friendly Atheist for much of the content of this article