Judge rules against Pledge in schools

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A California federal judge yesterday ruled it is unconstitutional to require children to recite the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools.

U.S. District Judge Lawrence Karlton's ruling came in a revised lawsuit brought by Michael Newdow, an atheist whose first bid to remove the words "under God" from the pledge was rejected last year by the Supreme Court.

"The pledge is an unconstitutional violation of the children's right to be free from a coercive requirement to affirm God," Judge Karlton wrote in yesterday's decision.

Three Sacramento-area school districts were named in the retooled suit, which features a new set of plaintiffs, including the atheist parents of a seventh-grader and the divorced atheist parent of a third-grader and a kindergartner.

Judge Karlton, 70, was appointed to the court in 1979 by President Carter. The judge cited a 2003 decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals "that the school districts' policies violate the establishment clause" as the reason for his decision.

A jubilant Mr. Newdow hailed the news.

"I'm excited," he said in an interview. "It's good now that the judge has agreed with me and that the Constitution was upheld. We'll see how long that lasts."

The judge also told Mr. Newdow he would sign a restraining order preventing the recitation of the pledge at the Elk Grove Unified, Rio Linda Union and Elverta Joint Elementary school districts, where the plaintiffs' children attend.

Mr. Newdow promised he'd file a restraining order soon.

House and Senate Republicans criticized Judge Karlton's ruling.