High School Student Defeats Atheist Activists: Pledge of Allegiance can stay in N.J. Schools
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The atheist activist group American Humanist Association has thrown in the towel, deciding not to appeal New Jersey high school student Samantha Jones’ victory in state trial court protecting the Pledge of Allegiance. The decision to give up the case marks the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty’s fifth victory in a row defending the words “one nation under God.”
“I’m so grateful to know that I will be able to continue reciting the Pledge in peace,” said Samantha Jones, a senior at Highland Regional High School in Blackwood, N.J. “Ever since I was little, I’ve recited the Pledge of Allegiance because it sums up the values that make our country great. The phrase ‘under God’ protects all Americans—including atheists—because it reminds the government that it can’t take away basic human rights because it didn’t create them.”
This is the second time in two years that a state court has stopped the American Humanist Association from outlawing the federal Pledge. Their first state-level suit, raising identical claims, was unanimously rejected by Massachusetts’ highest court last year, in a case also defended by the Becket Fund.
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