Knights of Columbus urge Supreme Court to keep 'under God' in pledge

Published: 2003-12-29

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The Knights of Columbus urged the Supreme Court not to take the words "under God" out of the Pledge of Allegiance, saying it would "cause a sea change in our nation's self-understanding that should not be imposed by judicial order." A brief filed by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty on behalf of the Knights said the court should overturn an appellate ruling that found the pledge unconstitutional because of the words "under God." The brief noted that the two words, added to the pledge in 1954, were inserted at the height of the Cold War in order to make a distinction between the views of United States and the Soviet Union. The American view, it said, is that people are "endowed by their Creator" -- not by the state -- with their rights and thus the state had no power to take these rights away. The initial campaign to insert "under God" into the pledge received major support from the Knights of Columbus and from the National Fraternal Congress, then headed by the Knights' supreme knight, Luke Hart.

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