There are two fascinating threads going on over at The Volokh Conspiracy. The first is a discussion of the decision of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals over the weekend not to reconsider last summer's "Pledge of Allegiance" case. That means that, pending appeal to the Supreme Court, the ruling stands that the inclusion of the words "under God" are unconstitutional, at least within the jurisdiction of the 9th Circuit. Enforcement of the ruling, however, has again been stayed.
As usual, Volokh has a number of excellent points to make here, with additional follow-up here, here and here. I'd also make a point of checking out Mark Kleiman's analysis (to which Eugene links).
To me, this whole controversy has seemed overblown, and I have no scintillating legal analysis to add to the above or to Jack Balkin's discussion of "ceremonial deism," which sheds an additional interesting light on the subject. But Attorney General Ashcroft's idiotic comment the other day really set me off.
We will defend the ability of Americans to declare their patriotism through the time-honored tradition of voluntarily reciting the pledge.
Well, of course we will, regardless of whether or not The Pledge includes the words "under God," which, after all, were added to the "time-honored tradition" a scant 49 years ago. My dad remarked this weekend that he (and his entire generation) grew up reciting The Pledge every single school day without once uttering the words "under God" and never felt any less American for it. Both Mr. Ashcroft and Mr. Newdow, as well as their various supporters in Congress and elsewhere, should just shut up now, please, and let the Court handle this.
Of equal if not greater interest to me, anyway, is a thread on the role of the civil courts in enforcing religious regulations. This one focuses primarily on the controversy over New York laws regulating the designation of products as "kosher," but it delves as well into matters of Jewish divorce and includes one reader's exposition on the battle between the Orthodox, Conservative and Reform denominations for the soul of American Jewry. If this kind of thing is of any interest to you at all, I'd make a point of following the whole discussion, which starts here (with a link to this article by Jacob Sullum in Reason) and continues (so far) here, here, here and here.
