I just got an email from George Caras a member of our Reno Hayek Symposium who took justified pride in letting me know that his old Stanford teammate and friend, Judge Carlos Bea wrote the 2-1 majority opinion in Newdow v. Rio Linda Unified School District, upholding the use of “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance. Michael Newdow, a doctor and attorney who founded the “First Atheist Church of True Science” (Now there’s an oxymoron if there ever was one!) challenged the practice on First Amendment grounds. He said he would request a rehearing and then a Supreme Court appeal. (See the AP report here.)
In a separate 3-0 ruling the same court upheld the use of “In God We Trust” on our coins and currency saying that “it has nothing whatsoever to do with the establishment of religion.”
Judge Bea is also a teammate and fraternity brother of my friend Ron Tomsic. Both he and George are lucky to know this competent jurist. But as I said to George, I’ll bet Bea doesn’t get to write too many majority opinions in our 9th Circuit!
Tom Motherway