Michael A. Newdow stood before the justices of the Supreme Court on Wednesday, pointed to one of the courtroom's two American flags and declared: "I am an atheist. I don't believe in God." [...] He then proceeded to argue his own case for why the daily recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance in his daughter's public school classroom violates the Constitution as long as the pledge contains the words "under God." [...] When Dr. Newdow described "under God" as a divisive addition to the pledge, Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist asked him what the vote in Congress had been 50 years ago when the phrase was inserted. The vote was unanimous, Dr. Newdow said. "Well, that doesn't sound divisive," the chief justice observed. Dr. Newdow shot back, "That's only because no atheist can get elected to public office." The courtroom audience broke into applause, an exceedingly rare event that left the chief justice temporarily nonplussed. He appeared to collect himself for a moment, and then sternly warned the audience that the courtroom would be cleared "if there's any more clapping." more: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/25/politics/25SCOT.html?hp cheers, -tor -- Torgeir Fjeld torgfje2@xxxxxxxxxx http://home.no.net/torgfje/ ------------------------------------------------------- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by The University of Surrey Roehampton MailScanner, and is believed to be clean. ------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html