California atheist Michael Newdow has taken his attack on the Pledge of Allegiance to the East Coast, filing suit on behalf of a New Hampshire couple who claim the recitation of the pledge is harming their children.

The couple are identified only as Jan Doe, an atheist, and husband Pat Doe, an agnostic, whose three children are students in the Hanover School District. Their suit is similar to others attorney Newdow has filed in California, but goes further in depicting the Pledge as “an adverse religious burden upon children in the public schools.”

“In fact, it is inevitable that children will suffer harm as a result of this practice,” the complaint says. “Accordingly, Defendants actually engage in child neglect (if not child abuse).”

The suit quotes a federal law which defines “child abuse and neglect” as “any recent act or failure to act on the part of a ... caretaker, which results in ... serious physical or emotional harm ... or an act or failure to act which presents an imminent risk of serious harm.”

The U.S. Supreme Court rejected Newdow's original Pledge case, in which he was the plaintiff, because of lack of standing. Another California case, filed by Newdow on behalf of a Sacramento County couple, is pending before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

New Hampshire appears to be a bit of hotbed of anti-Pledge sentiment. In May, a middle-school teacher sued the Seabrook School District for retaliating against her because she refused to participate in the recitation of the pledge.

By Matthew Heller
11/5/07