SJC to weigh wording of pledge

Atheist couple seeks to strike phrase ‘under God’

The state Supreme Judicial Court will begin hearing arguments this week in an atheist Acton couple’s quest to strike the words “under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance their children say in the Acton- Boxboro Regional School District.

The couple’s suit, filed anonymously on behalf of their three children, goes to the SJC tomorrow, with a pair of Washington, D.C., activist organizations taking part in the proceedings.

“We feel confident that our arguments are the right ones, and we’re certainly hopeful that they’re persuasive to the justices,” said Eric Rassbach, deputy general counsel for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which is arguing on behalf of the school district. “We represent some kids that are actually in the ActonBoxboro School District that would like to keep saying the pledge.”

Efforts to reach the American Humanist Association, arguing on behalf of the family, were unsuccessful yesterday.

The organization says in court filings that the pledge uses “wording strongly favoring one religious class while disfavoring the plaintiffs’ religious class.”

Middlesex Superior Court Judge S. Jane Haggerty rejected the lawsuit last year, ruling that “‘under God’ does not convert the exercise into a prayer,” that the children can choose not to say the pledge, and that the inclusion of “under God” did not violate the childrens’ rights.

Rassbach said the SJC review of the case could take as little as a month or as long as a year.

Congress added “under God” to the pledge in 1954 after a lobbying effort by the Knights of Columbus.