Public
Law 107-293 (S. 2690) was signed by President George W. Bush on
November 13, 2002. This law reaffirms the reference to the words
"under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance and the reference to God in the
nation's motto "In God We Trust." Details regarding the law's
enactment follow:
The One Hundred Seventh Congress of the United States of America at
the second session begun and held at the City of Washington on
Wednesday, the twenty-third day of January, two thousand and two
An Act to reaffirm the reference to one Nation under God in the Pledge
of Allegiance.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. FINDINGS.
Congress finds the following:
(1) On November 11, 1620, prior to embarking for the shores of
America, the Pilgrims signed the Mayflower Compact that declared:
‘‘Having undertaken, for the Glory of God and the advancement of the
Christian Faith and honor of our King and country, a voyage to plant
the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia,’’.
(2) On July 4, 1776, America’s Founding Fathers, after appealing
to the ‘‘Laws of Nature, and of Nature’s God’’ to justify their
separation from Great Britain, then declared: ‘‘We hold these Truths to
be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed
by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are
Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness’’.
(3) In 1781, Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of
Independence and later the Nation’s third President, in his work titled
‘‘Notes on the State of Virginia’’ wrote: ‘‘God who gave us life gave
us liberty. And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we
have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the
people that these liberties are of the Gift of God. That they are not
to be violated but with His wrath? Indeed, I tremble for my country
when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep
forever.’’.
(4) On May 14, 1787, George Washington, as President of the
Constitutional Convention, rose to admonish and exhort the delegates
and declared: ‘‘If to please the people we offer what we ourselves
disapprove, how can we afterward defend our
work? Let us raise a standard to which the wise and the honest can
repair; the event is in the hand of God!’’.
(5) On July 21, 1789, on the same day that it approved the
Establishment Clause concerning religion, the First Congress of the
United States also passed the Northwest Ordinance, providing for a
territorial government for lands northwest of the Ohio River, which
declared: ‘‘Religion, morality, and knowledge, being necessary to good
government and the happinessof mankind, schools and the means of
education shall forever
be encouraged.’’.
(6) On September 25, 1789, the First Congress unanimously approved
a resolution calling on President George Washington to proclaim a
National Day of Thanksgiving for the people of the United States by
declaring, ‘‘a day of public thanksgiving
and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging, with grateful hearts, the
many signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an
opportunity peaceably to establish a constitution of government for
their safety and happiness.’’.
(7) On November 19, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln delivered his
Gettysburg Address on the site of the battle and declared: ‘‘It is
rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before
us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that
cause for which they gave the
last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these
dead shall not have died in vain—that this Nation, under God, shall
have a new birth of freedom—and that Government of the people, by the
people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.’’.
(8) On April 28, 1952, in the decision of the SupremeCourt of the
United States in Zorach v. Clauson, 343 U.S. 306 (1952), in which
school children were allowed to be excused
from public schools for religious observances and education, Justice
William O. Douglas, in writing for the Court stated:
‘‘The First Amendment, however, does not say that in everyand all
respects there shall be a separation of Church and State. Rather, it
studiously defines the manner, the specific ways, in which there shall
be no concern or union or dependency one on the other. That is the
common sense of the matter. Otherwise the State and religion
would be
aliens to each other—hostile, suspicious, and even unfriendly. Churches
could notbe required to pay even property taxes. Municipalities
would
not be permitted to render police or fire protection to religious
groups. Policemen who helped parishioners into their places of worship
would violate the Constitution. Prayers in our legislative halls; the
appeals to the Almighty in the messages of the Chief Executive; the
proclamations making Thanksgiving
Day a holiday; ‘so help me God’ in our courtroom oaths—these and
all other references to the Almighty that run through our laws, our
public rituals, our ceremonies would be flouting the First Amendment. A
fastidious atheist or agnostic could even object to the supplication
with which the Court opens each session: ‘God save the United States
and this Honorable Court.’ ’’.
(9) On June 15, 1954, Congress passed and President Eisenhower
signed into law a statute that was clearly consistent with the text and
intent of the Constitution of the United States, that amended the
Pledge of Allegiance to read: ‘‘I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the
United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one
Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.’’.
(10) On July 20, 1956, Congress proclaimed that the national
motto of the United States is ‘‘In God We Trust’’, and that motto is
inscribed above the main door of the Senate, behind the Chair of the
Speaker of the House of Representatives, and on the currency of the
United States.
(11) On June 17, 1963, in the decision of the Supreme Court of
the United States in Abington School District v. Schempp, 374 U.S. 203
(1963), in which compulsory school prayer was held unconstitutional,
Justices Goldberg and S. 2690—3
Harlan, concurring in the decision, stated: ‘‘But untutored
devotion to the concept of neutrality can lead to invocation or
approval of results which partake not simply of that noninterference
and noninvolvement with the religious which the Constitution
commands, but of a brooding and pervasive devotion to the secular and a
passive, or even active, hostility to the religious. Such results are
not only not compelled by the Constitution, but, it seems to me, are
prohibited by it. Neither government nor this Court can or should
ignore the significance of the fact that a vast portion of our people
believe in and worship God and that many of our legal, political, and
personal values derive historically from religious teachings.
Government must inevitably take cognizance of the existence of religion
and, indeed, under certain circumstances the First Amendment may
require that it do so.’’.
(12) On March 5, 1984, in the decision of the Supreme Court of the
United States in Lynch v. Donelly, 465 U.S. 668 (1984), in which a city
government’s display of a nativity scene was held to be constitutional,
Chief Justice Burger, writing for the Court, stated: ‘‘There is an
unbroken history of official acknowledgment by all three branches of
government of the role of religion in American life from at least 1789
. . . [E]xamples of reference to our religious heritage are found
in the statutorily prescribed national motto ‘In God We Trust’ (36
U.S.C. 186), which Congress and the President mandated for our
currency, see (31 U.S.C. 5112(d)(1) (1982 ed.)), and in the language
‘One Nation under God’, as part of the Pledge of Allegiance to the
American flag. That pledge is recited by many thousands of public
school children—and adults—every year . . . Art galleries supported by
public revenues display religious paintings of the 15th and 16th
centuries, predominantly inspired by one religious faith. The National
Gallery in Washington, maintained with Government support, for example,
has long exhibited masterpieces with religious messages, notably the
Last Supper, and paintings depicting the Birth of Christ, the
Crucifixion, and the Resurrection, among many others with explicit
Christian themes and messages. The very chamber in which oral arguments
on this case were heard is decorated with a notable and permanent—not
seasonal—symbol of religion: Moses with the Ten Commandments. Congress
has long provided chapels in the Capitol for religious worship and
meditation.’’.
(13) On June 4, 1985, in the decision of the Supreme Court of the
United States in Wallace v. Jaffree, 472 U.S. 38 (1985), in which a
mandatory moment of silence to be used for meditation or voluntary
prayer was held unconstitutional, Justice O’Connor, concurring in the
judgment and
addressing the contention that the Court’s holding would render
the Pledge of Allegiance unconstitutional because Congress amended it
in 1954 to add the words ‘‘under God,’’ stated ‘‘In my view, the words
‘under God’ in the Pledge, as codified at (36 U.S.C. 172), serve as an
acknowledgment of religion with ‘the legitimate secular purposes of
solemnizing public occasions, [and] expressing confidence in the
future.’ ’’.
(14) On November 20, 1992, the United States court of Appeals for
the 7th Circuit, in Sherman v. Community Consolidated School District
21, 980 F.2d 437 (7th Cir. 1992), held that a school district’s policy
for voluntary recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance including the
words ‘‘under God’’ was constitutional.
(15) The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals erroneously held, in Newdow
v. U.S. Congress (9th Cir. June 26, 2002), that the Pledge of
Allegiance’s use of the express religious reference ‘‘under God’’
violates the First Amendment to the Constitution, and that, therefore,
a school district’s policy and practice of
teacher-led voluntary recitations of the Pledge of Allegiance is
unconstitutional.
(16) The erroneous rationale of the 9th Circuit Court ofAppeals
in Newdow would lead to the absurd result that the Constitution’s use
of the express religious reference ‘‘Year of our Lord’’ in Article VII
violates the First Amendment to the Constitution, and that, therefore,
a school district’s policy and
practice of teacher-led voluntary recitations of the Constitution
itself would be unconstitutional.
SEC. 2. ONE NATION UNDER GOD.
(a) REAFFIRMATION.—Section 4 of title 4, United States Code, is amended
to read as follows:
§ 4. Pledge of allegiance to the flag; manner of delivery ‘‘The
Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag: ‘I pledge allegiance to the Flag of
the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands,
one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.’,
should be rendered by standing at attention facing the flag with the
right hand over the heart. When not in uniform men should remove any
non-religious headdress with their right hand and hold it at the left
shoulder, the hand being over the heart. Persons in uniform should
remain silent, face the flag, and render the military salute.’’.
(b) CODIFICATION.—In codifying this subsection, the Office of the
Law Revision Counsel shall show in the historical and statutory notes
that the 107th Congress reaffirmed the exact language that has appeared
in the Pledge for decades.
SEC. 3. REAFFIRMING THAT GOD REMAINS IN OUR MOTTO.
(a) REAFFIRMATION.—Section 302 of title 36, United States Code, is
amended to read as follows:
§ 302. National motto
"‘In God we trust’ is the national motto."
b) CODIFICATION.—In codifying this subsection, the Office of the
Law Revision Counsel shall make no change in section 302, title 36,
United States Code, but shall show in the historical and statutory
notes that the 107th Congress reaffirmed the exact language that has
appeared in the Motto for decades.
Speaker of the House of Representatives.
Vice President of the United States and
President of the Senate.
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