Q: When our club meeting starts, we recite the “Pledge of Allegiance.” Our son at school each day also recites the pledge. But there is separation of church and state. How is the pledge legal when we say, “One Nation under God”?
A.S., Torrance
A: There is history to the “Pledge of Allegiance.” The words that you reference, “under God,” were added in 1954. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed a bill passed by Congress that placed the words “under God” within the phrase “one nation indivisible”.
The pledge has been challenged in court, and the question you raise has been asked by others. The pledge has been upheld because it is deemed to be a patriotic recital, which embraces allegiance to the flag of the United States, and to our republic. In this light, it is not considered of a religious nature.
Still, court decisions have emphasized the vital importance of First Amendment freedoms. The United States Supreme Court, for example, has found that “the free speech clause of the First Amendment prohibits public schools from forcing students to salute the American flag and say the ‘Pledge of Allegiance.’”
Q: At the park, we saw some holiday decorations, one showing Jesus Christ at birth in the manger. We do not object, but can that religious display legally be on a public property?
M.W., Long Beach
A: The Establishment Clause of the First Amendment provides “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.”
For many years, there was a three-prong test that would be applied to your question, based on a Supreme Court case entitled Lemon v Kurtzman: Is there a secular purpose for the display? Is the primary effect to promote or advance religion? And is the governmental action overly entangled with religion? The factors to evaluate also can differ if a private party places the display on the public property, as opposed to the government. Bottom line, analysis of several issues come into play, with a focus on…
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