AHA appeals "under God" in Pledge - with interesting legal challenge.
Utilizing the Massachusetts state constitution, and "ignoring" the First Amendment decision of the 9th circuit court...
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/06/11/atheists-in-massachusetts-fight-under-god-in-pledge-of-allegiance/
Massachusetts law requires public school teachers to begin each day with a recitation of the pledge. However, students can refuse to recite the pledge and remain silent.
In the case, Jane Doe, et. als. v. Acton-Boxborough Regional School District et al, the group represented an atheist family who claimed that reciting the pledge violated Massachusetts nondiscrimination law because the anthem contains the phrase “under God.” But Massachusetts Superior Court Judge S. Jane Haggerty held that the pledge was not an affirmation of any religious truth and therefore was not discriminatory.
“No child should go to school every day, from kindergarten to grade twelve, to be faced with an exercise that defines patriotism according to religious belief,” said the plaintiffs’ attorney David Niose, who is also AHA president. “If conducting a daily classroom exercise that marginalizes one religious group while exalting another does not violate basic principles of equal rights and nondiscrimination, then I don’t know what does.”
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