Atheists around the country should, I think, be heaving a collective sigh of relief after the June 14 Supreme Court dismissal of Michael Newdow's Pledge of Allegiance Case.
I can hear the incredulous roar from you now: WHAT!?!? ARE YOU KIDDING???
No, I'm realistic. If the Supreme Court had made a decision, what do you think it would've been? To uphold the Ninth Circuit Court's ruling? Fat chance.
The Supreme Court is too conservative to make a fair-minded decision on this one. You'll notice that the three justices who disagreed with the dismissal vote said they would've voted in favor of keeping "under God" in the Pledge.
So please join me in sighing with relief.
Now, there is something that really bunches my shorts about this case (and so many others). Newdow is blaming it on really dumb child custody laws, allowing for the Court to say he didn't have standing to make the suit in the first place. And he certainly has a valid point… our child custody laws need serious revision. But I think it's bigger than just that. I think the entire concept of "standing" is a bit loopy.
Back in my Freethought Society of Northern Utah days, there was a case that our pro bono attorney was itching to make: a large Ten Commandments monument sat on public property in the town of Roy. He needed a plaintiff to sue for its removal.
Problem was, FSNU had no members who lived in Roy. I lived in Riverdale, just one town over. But for "standing," it had to be a Roy resident.
The same thing happened years before, when I lived in Downingtown, Pennsylvania. I was a member of the Freethought Society of Greater Philadelphia, and was all set to be the plaintiff in the lawsuit to remove a Ten Commandments plaque from beside the main doors to the Chester County courthouse. Unfortunately, I moved to Utah before that could happen. It took years before another Chester County resident stepped forth to fill my shoes on that one. (And the case was successful!)
But the point is that in all three of these cases, there have been people willing to make the case… except they didn't have "standing." Newdow didn't. I didn't, in Utah. And non-Chester County residents in Pennsylvania would have made that case, too.
In the Supreme Court case especially, it's just stupid. This is about the Pledge of Allegiance. What the Supremes basically said is that the Pledge only applies to our children, who recite it daily in schools. An adult citizen of our country does not have cause to make the suit, apparently.
That's just ridiculous.
At any rate, the case isn't dead. It'll come back. And if we atheists are wise, we'll wait until the composition of the Supreme Court is more centered, rather than listing so far to the right.
