Elk Grove Unified School District v. Newdow

Summary

Schools in the Elk Grove Unified School District began each day with teachers leading students in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. Even though students’ participation was voluntary, an atheist parent named Michael Newdow claimed that Elk Grove was impermissibly forcing religious beliefs on his daughter because she had to listen to the words “under God.”

The U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear the case, and Alliance Defending Freedom funded an amicus brief on behalf of Elk Grove. In a unanimous decision in 2004, the Supreme Court ruled that Newdow did not have standing to bring the lawsuit because he lacked legal custody of his daughter and could not sue on her behalf. While the Court did not reach a decision on the constitutional question, Chief Justice William Rehnquist and Justices Sandra Day O’Connor and Clarence Thomas each wrote concurring opinions in which they said that Elk Grove did not violate the First Amendment .