Pledge Stuff

How to untangle the religious from the patriotic

Today, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments about whether the words "under God" must be omitted from the recitation of the pledge in public schools. As a legal matter, the required outcome is plain: A principled application of constitutional law calls for the words to be stricken. As a political matter, however, the case is more complex: It pairs patriotism with religious faith, matters that inflame passions when they arise in isolation and are downright incendiary when they coalesce. But it is precisely because the pledge pairs religion and politics that the phrase must be removed.

That's pretty much it in a nutshell. Legally, the words have to go...especially if the pledge is to be recited in public schools. It's the politicization of the issue which has convoluted it. Let's hope the SCOTUS can see through the haze and rule in favor of the Constitution.

If the federal courts cannot be counted on to rest their rulings on principle -- rather than politics -- they add nothing to our constitutional order that is not already provided by the representative branches of government.

Bingo! Exactly! And yet, this is exactly what the Conservative Reich is trying to do in pushing legislation which would allow Congress to veto high court rulings.