Federal Court Allows Knights To Intervene in Pledge Lawsuit

7/18/2005

Newdow Again Challenges Constitutionality of "Under God" in Pledge

U.S. District Judge Lawrence K. Karlton on July 18 granted a motion by the Knights of Columbus and seven individual Knights and their families to intervene in Newdow, et al v. Congress of the United States of America, et al. The lawsuit is Michael Newdow's latest attempt to challenge the constitutionality of the words "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance. Judge Karlton granted the motion from the bench in a hearing in federal court in Sacramento, Calif. The Knights of Columbus played a key role in persuading Congress to pass legislation adding "under God" to the Pledge in 1954. When President Eisenhower signed the bill on Flag Day, 1954, he wrote a letter to Supreme Knight Luke Hart thanking the Knights for their effort. Newdow, whose earlier constitutional challenge to the Pledge was thrown out by the Supreme Court last year, filed a new lawsuit in January 2005. In that suit, he is joined by eight co-plaintiffs. The Knights of Columbus filed a motion to join the case as "defendant intervenors" in May, asking that they be permitted to "protect their substantial interest in defending ... the constitutionality of the Pledge of Allegiance that is recited daily in California's public schools." In the earlier legal battle, the Knights of Columbus filed an amicus curiae brief with the Supreme Court, but did not directly participate. "Now," Supreme Knight Carl A. Anderson said, "we will be able to join the fight inside the courtroom. We are proud to have had a central role in adding 'under God' to the Pledge 51 years ago, and are determined to do everything possible to defend it in this court challenge." Both the individual Knights and their families and the Knights of Columbus as an organization are represented in the lawsuit by The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a Washington, D.C., public interest law firm that specializes in cases involving the free exercise of religion. The text of the legal documents in the case can be found at www.becketfund.org