[Congressional Bills 107th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 2690 Enrolled Bill (ENR)]
S.2690
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,

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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 happiness of 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 Supreme Court 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 every and 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 not be 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 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 of
Appeals 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.

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(a) Reaffirmation.--Section 4 of title 4, United States Code, is
amended to read as follows:
``Sec. 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.

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(a) Reaffirmation.--Section 302 of title 36, United States Code, is
amended to read as follows:
``Sec. 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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Pledge of Allegiance bill

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