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Judge asked to throw out lawsuit over Pledge of Allegiance

A New Jersey school district is being supported by the Knights of Columbus and American Legion in its fight to keep "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance.

By Frances Burns
Veterans participate in the Pledge of Allegiance during a ceremony near the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on Veterans Day in Washington, D.C., November 11, 2013. UPI/Kevin Dietsch
Veterans participate in the Pledge of Allegiance during a ceremony near the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on Veterans Day in Washington, D.C., November 11, 2013. UPI/Kevin Dietsch | License Photo

FREEHOLD, N.J., Nov. 20 (UPI) -- A New Jersey judge must decide whether to throw out a lawsuit contending the words "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance violate atheists' rights.

The American Humanist Association in Washington sued the Matawan-Aberdeen Regional School District on behalf of an unnamed family with a student in the district. Superior Court Judge David Bauman heard arguments Wednesday on the district's motion to dismiss the suit.

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The association argues that having the phrase in the pledge violates the New Jersey Constitution.

David Rubin, a lawyer for the district, said state law does not demand individual students say the pledge. He was joined in his request for dismissal by the Knights of Columbus, the American Legion and the Becket Fund, a conservative legal group dealing with issues of religious freedom

David Niose, representing the plaintiffs, argued the phrase is discriminatory.

"It paints one group as quintessential patriots and the other group as second-class citizens," he said.

The association lost a similar case in Massachusetts earlier this year.

The words "under God" were only added to the pledge in 1954 during the Cold War. The pledge was written in 1892 by Francis Bellamy, a minister and Christian socialist, and officially approved by Congress 50 years later.

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Samantha Jones, 18, a student at Highlands Regional School in Blackwood, told NJ.com her family joined the suit to defend the pledge.

"This is about protecting our freedom as Americans," Jones said. "Ever since I was little I remember saying the pledge all the time and 'Under God' sums up the history and values that I've always learned make our country great because it does acknowledge our rights don't come from the government but rather from a higher power, so they can't take away the basic human rights they did not create."

But across the country, educators are forcing students to recite the pledge or punishing them when they opt out.

"This discrimination demonstrates the need to restore the Pledge to its pre-Cold War, inclusive wording of 'one nation indivisible,'" Roy Speckhardt, executive director of AHA, said of such instances.

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