Instead of the majority setting the standard, we are now subjected to demands to conform to minorities' ways of life. Their beliefs and practices now have to be taken into consideration while dealing with everyday practices. Some religions, such as Jehovah's Witnesses, won't allow you to pledge allegiance to anything higher than their God. So in that case the entire Pledge would be void. In 1956 Congress "retired- our national motto, E Pluribus Unum, which is Latin for "Out Of Many, One,"" This had been suggested by Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams. It can be traced to the Epistles of Horace, and was intended to signify the union of the original 13 Colonies, and replaced it with theology: "In God We Trust."".
The entire basis for controversy came when a federal appeals court found the pledge of allegiance illegal stating that-.the phrase "one nation under God- in the context of the Pledge is normative. To recite the Pledge is not to describe the United States; instead, it is to swear allegiance to the values for which the flag stands: unity, indivisibility, liberty, justice, and - since 1954 - monotheism.A profession that we are a nation "Under God- is identical, for Establishment Clause purposes, to a profession that we are a nation "under Jesus,"" a nation "under Vishnu,"" a nation "under Zeus,"" or a nation "under no god,"" because none of these professions can be neutral with respect to religion," Judge Alfred T. Goodwin wrote for the three-judge panel. .
In a 2-1 decision, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the phrase amounts to a government endorsement of religion in violation of the Constitution's Establishment Clause, which requires a separation of church and state. The case was brought by Michael A. Newdow, a Sacramento atheist who objected because his second-grade daughter was required to recite the pledge at the Elk Grove school district. Previous rulings of the Supreme Court have made religious mentions and the stating of the pledge of allegieance at graduations also illegal.
