Suit to purge “under God’’ from Pledge is over

Kathleen Hopkins
2:30 p.m. EDT April 13, 2015

The failed legal battle to remove the words, “under God,’’ from the Pledge of Allegiance recited daily in the Matawan-Aberdeen school district is over, the district’s attorney said.

The 45-day time frame for the American Humanist Association to file an appeal of a Monmouth County Superior Court judge’s decision dismissing the association’s lawsuit has expired without an appeal being filed, according to David Rubin, the school district’s attorney.

“The time for the filing of an appeal has passed and no appeal has been filed, so this case is over,’’ said Rubin, who defended the school district’s right to keep the words “under God,’’ in the pledge said daily in its schools.

The American Humanist Association, an organization that works to protect the rights of atheists and other non-religious groups, filed the lawsuit against the school district last year on behalf of an unnamed family with a child in the school system. The lawsuit claimed that the practice of acknowledging God in the pledge discriminated against atheists, in violation of New Jersey’s constitution. Superior Court Judge David F. Bauman in February ruled that it did not, after the school district went to court to get the lawsuit dismissed.

http://www.app.com/story/news/education/2015/04/13/suit-purge-god-pledge/25721835/

Link to the ruling is in this February article.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/maureensullivan/2015/02/07/judge-refuses-to-kick-god-out-of-public-schools/