David writes:

> My point is the Federal Court system has no jurisdiction. It is only because
>  they want to set law that they attempt it. That's not their purpose. The
>  Federal Court system is to interpret the law, not make it. It's been my
>  gripe for years that the Federal Courts are overstepping their boundaries.
>  And at least to me, there is no violation of the law in this case, as it
has
>  nothing to do with Congress.
>
>  I understand your argument. It has merit, but I don't believe it is covered
>  by the Constitution. The wording of the 1st amendment is specifically
>  binding to Congress (not the States and certainly not communities), and
>  prohibits them from touching the subject.

But that is exactly the point. Congress *did* amend the Pledge of Allegiance
in 1954, following a concerted campaign the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic
organization to do so. A brief history of the KofC campaign is given at:

     http://www.msgrcramers.com/pledge_a.htm

The relevant paragraph is:

'The Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag of the United States originated on
Columbus Day, 1893. It contained no reference to Almighty God, until in New
York City on April 22, 1951, the Board of Directors of the Knights of
Columbus adopted a resolution to amend the Pledge of Allegiance as recited at
the opening of each of the meetings of the 800 Fourth Degree Assemblies of
the Knights of Columbus by addition of the words "under God" after the words
"one nation." The adoption of this resolve by the Supreme Board of Directors
had the effect of immediate initiation of this practice throughout the
aforesaid Fourth Degree Assembly meetings."

Perhaps even more startling, in 1956 this same reasoning led Congress replace
the original motto of the United States, "E Pluribus Unum" ("One [nation] out
of many"),  with "In God we Trust." Although both of these changes were made
at the height of the Cold War when people were frightened of every
possibility of nuclear war reaching the United States, the changes were in
effect not much more than petty marketing phrases to demonstrate to ourselves
our intrinsic superiority over the "godless commies." Worse, the changes gave
rise to the currently common belief that there is a traditional American
theocracy, a notion that is at best completely unsupported by fact and at
worse potentially dangerous.

Wirt Atmar

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