Lawmakers Say Pledge Protection Act Needed More Than Ever?

Sponsors plan to use Flag Day to unveil legislation to guard "under God" phrase.

Members of Congress told the nation recently that, if we are not careful, the right of Americans to go public with their religion is in danger of being lost to activist courts.

At a Capitol Hill news conference, Rep. Todd Akin, R-Mo., and Sens. John Kyl, R-Ariz., and Sam Brownback, R-Kan., said the country needs the Pledge Protection Act to safeguard our freedom.

"We're very concerned that the Supreme Court might possibly say that the words, 'one nation under God' would be unconstitutional," says Akin, according to a recent report by the group Focus on the Family. "I think that would be a tragedy and a travesty if it happens."

The bill would bar the federal courts from taking cases challenging the Pledge.

"If somebody complains to a federal judge that it's unconstitutional for school children to say the Pledge of Allegiance," Akin said, "then that federal judge would have to say, 'I'm sorry, I don't have jurisdiction to hear this case.' "

Akin said many people don't know that Congress has the power to limit what cases federal courts can take.

"The U.S. Constitution, in Article III, section 2 -- a part that people in law school aren't taught much about any more -- says the Congress establishes the jurisdiction of the federal courts," he said.

"That is, we can say to the federal courts, 'You can hear this kind of case, but you can't hear that kind of case.' We can't tell a judge how he or she is going to rule on something, but we can tell the courts -- 'You can't rule on it at all, period. You don't have jurisdiction to hear it.' "

Akin first introduced the bill in response to a 2003 decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco on a case brought by atheist activist Michael Newdow. The appeals court declared it unconstitutional for children in public schools to utter the phrase "under God" in the Pledge.

This is the second time for the bill to come before Congress. In 2005, the House passed it, 247-173, but the measure died in the Senate.

Akin said the idea that there is a God, that God grants rights to human beings and that the purpose of government is to secure those God-given rights is a foundational principle in American history.

Brownback, meanwhile, said that God and country have been inextricably linked since the founding of the republic.

"You've got 40 years of decisions by activist judges trying to remove any trace of God in the public square, and the march continues," Brownback said. "We really have to fight back against that for our own fundamental freedoms of the free expression of religion in society -- which is guaranteed in the Constitution."

Lanier Swann, director of government relations at Concerned Women for America, said the bill could come out of the House Judiciary Committee next week and a floor vote could be scheduled before the 4th of July.

"Children across the country must continue to have the right to recite our Pledge day in and day out," she added. "The words ‘under God’ make the Pledge not only a patriotic oath, but a public prayer for our country."