John Hostettler: “on June 26, 2002, in Newdow v. U.S. Congress, a three-member panel of the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that…”

“on June 26, 2002, in Newdow v. U.S. Congress, a three-member panel of the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a California school district's policy and practice of voluntary recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance was unconstitutional claiming that the use of the phrase ``one nation, under God'' violates the establishment clause of the first amendment to the Constitution. In February of this year, the Ninth Circuit, the full Ninth Circuit effectively upheld the decision of the three-judge panel. Mr. Chairman, the founders of the United States set up a brilliant system of government consisting of three separate branches with unambiguous roles. The Congress legislates, the President executes, and the courts judge. However, as in any organization of institutions with potentially competing interests, one institution would be constructed to be the weakest. Alexander Hamilton made it very clear that the framers had relegated the judiciary to this distinction when he said in Federalist No.…”